Fire Emblem: Gods Inheritor
by AxelDrevbon
Summary: A kingdom burns, having been overrun by a ruthless Conqueror. A queen and her children, descendants of the Saint King, flee the continent to save their lives and find themselves becoming wrapped up in the Royal Family of Ylisse. How will history change as Alm and Celica's descendant's live and fight along side the Shepherds against Plegia and the return of their dark god, Grima.
1. Prologue

**Endings a bit rushed and will most likely be worked on later. Any comments and reviews are welcome.**

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_I do not own Fire Emblem in any such way or form_

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_Are you really wanting a bedtime story that badly….ugh, fine. Alright, how about…A long time ago, the Kingdoms of Rigel and Zofia prospered on the continent that would be known as Valentia, watch over by the two dragon gods, Mila and Duma. But all dragons have their fate, and both were doomed to madness. Foreseeing this, the Holy Dragon, Naga, created a prophecy that would spread across the lands. When two are born with the marks of Duma and Mila on their hands, the Age of Gods would come to an end...wait, mom told you that story last night? Gawds, why am I stuck with this. Well fine, how about I tell you daddy's story, I know mom hasn't told you that one. His, and our, story begins in the Kingdom of Valm, where a stupid Conqueror makes his way towards the Valmese Castle._

* * *

The castle walls shook from the magical explosions hurled against its walls, the stone and mortar holding them together crumbling apart. The city just outside its borders was engulfed in flame, the sky blackened with ash as the screams of its inhabitants filling all who escaped with dread. Inside, dodging crumbling walls and flames spitting out at them, a knight and maid ran quickly through the hallways looking for their liege, a nine year old boy hanging onto the knights back, and a 6 year old girl crying in the maids arm.

"Quickly Nia, Queen Celes must be around here somewhere." the knight called out as he checked that the young boy was still hanging on.

"I'm running as fast as I can." Nia called back as she held the girl tight against her.

"As much as I pain to say it we must run faster! Young Prince, are you doing alright!?" the knight turned his head towards the young boy, the only detail he could see being the light red hair of the prince.

"I'm fine...I'm scarred." the boy said softly.

"I know...so am I." the knight said back with sad eyes, looking forwards once again to see where they where. "My Queen, please be…"

He was interrupted as a voice screamed out in anger.

"ARCFIRE!"

An explosion followed the powerful incantation instantly, the knight sighing with relief. As he turned the next corner, Queen Celes stood there with the charred corpses of some of the Conquerors troops.

She was wearing her ceremonial armor, golden pauldrons, chestplate, boots, and bracers complimented by the light red skirt and sleeves connected to a long black cape, on it a golden symbol of a long dead nation. Her light red hair, bound up into a ponytail, showed her features to resemble much of her ancient ancestor. Her left hand is covered in flames from the spell she just cast, while she held a golden colored sword in her right.

"How dare you invade my home!" Celes yelled at the corpses.

"My Queen, you're safe." the knight called out as he ran over to her, Nia close behind.

"Richard, what are you doing here!? You should be with my husband!" Celes yelled.

"I'm sorry, my Queen, I was ordered by his Majesty to flee from the country with you and the children. This battle is lost, the King stands ready to die as long as you all live." Richard explained, Celes' face frozen in shock.

"No...but…"

"Please, your Highness, yell at us later if you must, but we really must be going. Little Celene is not going to be well if she inhales too much ash." Nia interrupted her, handing over the girl to her.

Celene continued to cry while in Celes' arms, and she looked at her daughter for only a moment, before closing her eyes and turning around.

"Yes...yes, you're right. Richard, is the escape ship still in the bay?" Celes asked as she looked back at him, stroking her daughter's head to try and calm her down.

"Yes, it's at the castle docks. I will guide the way." Richard replied proudly, crouching down to let Cecil stand on his own, who quickly ran over and grabbed his mother's hand.

"Please do...thank you, Richard." Celes said as Richard walked past her, sword in hand and prepared for anything.

"Always, My Queen." he stated as they started to quickly make their way towards the back of the castle.

After sneaking their way through, and having several close calls of being seen by troops that were currently sacking the castle, the five managed to find themselves in front of an inconspicuous brick wall in the middle of one of the castle corridors. Richard sheathed his sword and started looking over the wall.

"Richard, do you remember which brick to press?" Celes asked as she looked over the wall.

"I believe so...let's see here." Richard stated as he placed his hands on the wall, lightly pressing to find one that was loose and looking left and right, before sighing and focusing on the wall "Nia, please keep an eye out. I don't want us getting caught when we're so close."

"Of course." she replied as she pulled a dagger out from her dress, scanning both directions down the hall.

After several seconds, one of the bricks gave just a little. "Ah, here we are."

Richard pressed on the brick, causing it to insert itself back into the wall, a small doorway swinging open up next to the brick on the wall. Unfortunately it made quite a racket upon opening up.

"Quickly, someone would have heard that." Richard stated as he walked through and stepped to the side, allowing the others through before pushing the wall back into place.

Just as Celes and her children walked into the passageway, the sounds of metal boots clanking on the cobbled hallways came from around a corner, one of the Conquerors foot soldiers flying past the wall and looking straight at the group.

"Hey! They're ove…"the soldiers words were cut short as Nia's dagger punctured his throat.

"Quickly!" Nia shouted as she ran through the doorway, Richard hopping through and grabbing the edge of the doorway, slamming it shut and pulling a small lever on the backside of the door, locking it shut as they could hear more soldiers running up the the wall.

"That was too close." Richard sighed as he reached for a lighted torch on the wall, grabbing it and holding it in front of them to lead the way once again. "...perfect throw Nia."

"I've been practicing Richard." Nia smiled as she followed behind Celes and her children.

"And a good thing you have Nia. Thank you." Celes said as she looked back at her.

"Always glad to be of service milady." Nia smiled as they quickly made their way through the tunnel.

After several minutes of walking, the smell of sea water and light filled the tunnel as the group found themselves in a small hidden dock underneath the castle, a fair sized and beautiful ship currently docked in the cave. As they quickly moved towards the ship, a voice called out to them.

"Oh thank the Gods! Men, get the gangplank down, quickly. Queen Celes has arrived." the captain of the ship yelled out, noise immediately coming from the ship as the crew ran over to the side of the ship with the large wooden plank and setting it down so the group could get on.

"Thank you Captain Orvil." Richard called out as he made it up the plank.

"Of course Sir Richard."

As Celes made her way onto the ship, she looked over to Richard. "Richard, make sure we are ready to sail, we must move quickly or they may find a way down here."

"At once, my Queen. You heard her, let's get moving!" Richard yelled out, the crew yelling back a resounding 'Yes Sir'.

Captain Orvil walked over to Celes and her children and bowed.

"Queen Celes, a great deal off my soul to see you well, as well as Prince Cecil and Princess Celine."

"You as well Orvil. Did my husband…" Celes started, Orvil cutting her off.

"He had us bring the ship here before the fighting even started. I hate to say it your highness, but I believe the King never thought he would live through the day."

"...I don't believe he did either, Orvil."

"I'm sorry, your highness. Give us a moment and we will be ready to set sail. Where do you want us to go?"

"No where on this continent will be safe for us...set a course for Regna Ferox, maybe we can find a place to live there."

"Live? Do you not intend to fight for your throne your highness?"

"With what army? Our army stands crippled and my husband is most likely already dead...who are we to turn to? Chon'sin? Rosanne? They won't be able to stand up to Walhart, nor do they have reason unless he marches his army towards them. No, I plan to live, royal or not, so that my children may live happily."

"A loving heart as always, my queen. Let me say this then, my men and myself will always been in your service...no matter what."

"Thank you, Orvil." Celes said with a genuine smile.

"Of course. Now then, I'll make sure we are ready to set sail." Orvil bowed before walking away.

She looked around at the crew frantically trying to make sure everything was ready. As she did, however, she felt Cecil tugging at her skirt.

"Mommy...is Daddy going with us?" Cecil said with tears in his eyes. Celes' heart broke as she looked at her son, before looking over to Nia.

"Nia dear, please look after Celene for a bit." Celes stated as she handed her daughter to Nia.

"Of course. Come Little Princess, let's go make sure no ash got in your eyes." Nia smiled before walking off with Celene.

Celes turned back to her son and knelt down to look him in the eyes. "No, Cecil, he won't be coming with us. He decided to stay behind so we could make it to this ship. I'm sorry, dear." she said with a frown, tears forming in her eyes as well. Cecil looked down at the deck, tears obviously falling from his eyes.

"Cecil, look at me."

It took a moment, but Cecil slowly looked up, opened his eyes and looked at his mother, finding her smiling at him, contrasting the tears falling from her eyes.

"I know it's hard, and it's alright to be sad and afraid, my little prince, but at times like these we must be strong and always look forwards, lest we forget where our fate lies. Do you understand?" she asked, Cecil quickly nodding. He wiped any tears remaining from his eyes and smiled back at her. "Good. I will never let you or your sister come to harm, I promise you." she smiled as she bought him into a fierce hug.

"I love you, mommy."

"I love you too, my little prince." she said as she let go.

Richard coughed into his fist, uncomfortable breaking up the family scene. "Sorry for the interruption, my queen, but we are ready to set sail."

"Good...then let us head out."

"At once. Set sail men!" Richard yelled out, the entire ship filled with it's crews cries.

* * *

At the front gates of the now burning city, it's army found themselves stranded and defeated, Walhart's army staring them down with their weapons drawn. In front of the gates, on his knees from exhaustion and wounds, was the King of Valm. He looked around at what was left of his army, thanking the gods that Walhart's men had taken prisoners instead of killing them outright. His black hair was matted with sweat and blood, deep cuts and wounds filled his body, he knew that even if he wasn't killed by Walhart, he'd die by the end of the day. He looked to the open sea on the western side of the city, hoping to see the royal ship already fleeing from the city. The sea was empty, and he felt dread crept into his body. Before he could even think about what might have happened, he heard large boots land on the ground. Looking forwards, Walhart strolled over to the kneeling king.

"Hmph...look at you now Elm. Kneeling, defeated, on the ground in front of me." Walhart stated.

"I'd stand to greet you, but sadly I can't at the moment." Elm quipped before coughing up blood. "Why? Why are you doing this? What purpose is there to go on this rampage?"

"I have seen the tidings of things Elm, terrible things, and this world must be united under one banner to survive. We must prepare and abandoned the gods rule over us, just as Duma commanded long ago. I will bring us to glory, and my empire will stand eternal."

"Good luck, dear cousin. You have decimated the army you would so desperately need if those things you believe would come to pass. You will have to rebuild, and build an allegiance of the people that they would even dream of laying their lives on the line for you. It will take years to accomplish that."

"And years I have, Elm. I will rebuild and we will be ready. The Empire of Valm will once again stand over this entire continent, nothing will stand in my way."

"I only wish I could live long enough to see it all crumble, Walhart." Elm sighed as looked at him for a moment, before looking out to sea once more. On the horizon, he could see the royal ship quickly making its way out to sea, avoiding any warships Walhart had near the city, He smiled, happily knowing his family would be safe.

"Any last words Elm?" Walhart asked as he started to raise his axe.

"May Mila watch over you, my love." he stated clearly.

Walhart looked at him for a moment, before looking out to sea as well, seeing the ship rolling over the horizon, and frowned. "A noble cause, Elm. You are the only one I aimed to kill today, so long as do not get in my way they shall be allowed to live."

"I suppose I should thank you then. Farewell, Cousin." Elm grinned at him like they had when they were kids.

A pang of guilt resounded through Walharts chest, but he steeled himself for he knew what must be done. "So be it. Goodbye, Elm." he said as he lifted his axe above his head.

"_Forgive me for not being there for you my love, keep our children safe. Grow up strong, Cecil..." _Elm thought as the axe came down, and the world filled with darkness.

* * *

The days passed quickly on the ship, and Walhart had, thankfully, not chased after the fleeing royal family, making the journey somewhat peaceful. But to Cecil they became increasingly boring as the amount of things he could think of doing became shorter and shorter each day. Normally he'd eat breakfast with his mother before randomly wandering the ship for most of the day. He tried to help out where he could, as much as a nine year old could anyways, but with the crew constantly hard at work to get them to Regna Ferox as quick as the ship could possibly go, he found himself alone most of the time. That changed, however, when he came across Richard training one day.

Yawning, Cecil opened up one of the many doors the the deck of the ship and walked out into the bright sunny day of the open sea. He was utterly bored, his mother was still in bed, watching over his sleeping sister, so he was alone for the first time in many mornings. What he expected to be a quiet morning however was interrupted as he heard Richard grunting on the other side of the ship. Looking over to where he thought Richard was, he saw him practicing sword forms. Richard was not wearing his armor today, just wearing his standard dark blue royal guard attire. Cecil quickly thought he might have found something to make the days pass by quicker.

"Richard!" Cecil called out as he happily ran over to him, smiling as said knight looked over to him.

"Prince Cecil, good morning." Richard smiled as he gave Cecil a quick bow. "What can I help you with this morning."

"I...can you teach me how to do, well that?" Cecil questioned as he pointed to Richard's sword.

"What? To swing a sword?" Richard asked, slightly confused.

"No, to fight with one! Daddy's...gone, so I have to take charge and keep Mommy and my sister safe." Cecil said with a heartfelt smile, trying his best to make Richard to agree to this request.

"You know I'm supposed to be the one protecting all of you, Prince Cecil...however, I suppose it would be a good idea for you to learn." Richard smiled as Cecil glowing smile widened as he jumped in joy.

"Thanks Richard!" Cecil yelled happily, causing Richard to laugh.

"Yes yes, now calm down are you might hurt yourself. Now, let me go see if we have any small wooden practice swords for you to use." he said as he walked off over to a small door near the back of the ship. Opening the door and taking a quick peek inside, Richard found a small wooden short sword in the corner. He grabbed it and quickly made his way back over to Cecil. "Here you are, now listen to what I say and you'll be ready to defend yourself in no time."

An hour later, within the large royal room of the ship, Celes had finally dressed herself for the day, and had just started dressing her daughter as Nia walked into the room.

"Good morning your highness." Nia said plainly as she did a quick bow. Celes sighing as she picked up the now dressed Celene.

"I am a queen no longer, Nia. You will call me Celes, not queen, highness, or majesty from now on. Understood?"

Nia gave a smirk in the former queens direction before answering. "As you wish, Celes." she giggled.

"Good, now where did Cecil wander off to this morning? He wasn't here when I woke up." Celes asked as she walked out of the room.

"Training with Richard, if you would believe me." Nia smiled as Celes turned back to her with a puzzled expression. "Thought you wouldn't, follow me." Nia said as she lead Celes up topside. As they walked onto the deck, they overheard Richard giving pointers.

"Now when you swing make sure you keep the blade straight, it won't help you if your sword keeps bouncing off of your enemies." Richard said as he showed Cecil a few examples. "Now you try."

Cecil nodded and held his wooden sword in front of him, before slowly swinging it like Richard and showed him. He began to pick up speed from his swings, trying to keep the sword straight while Richard smiled at him.

"Good, good. Now here's a real test." he smiled before pulling a small dummy over and placing it in front of Cecil as he stopped swinging. "I want you to hit this dummy as hard as you can."

Cecil nodded and focused on the dummy as Richard walked away. With a small yell he lunged forwards and smacked the dummy as hard as he could, causing it to wiggle out of place for a moment before standing still once again.

"Good, again. Keep going until I say to stop." Richard said as he placed a hand on Cecil's shoulder, said boy turning and smiling at him before continuing the exercise.

"I see you're training my son, Richard. How is he doing?" Celes asked as she a Nia walked over.

"Very well milady, he's caught on to my lessons in only an hour or so." Richard smiled proudly.

"Did he ask you or did you offer?"

"He asked, I'm as surprised as you are."

"My son is always good for surprises." Celes smiled as she turned to watch Cecil, who had started to slow down with his swings.

"Getting tired, Prince Cecil?" Richard asked as the swings slowed even more.

"Yeah...but I'll keep going. I need to protect Mommy right." Cecil smiled as he kept swinging.

"Just so...Cecil, stop for a moment." Richard said as he he walked in front of him and knelt down to look him in the eyes. "This may be painful, but I want you to think about the person you hate most, then swing your hardest at the dummy. Our emotions can make us more powerful, but you must fully control your actions _and _emotions to truly show mastery of the sword." Richard stated clearly.

"Right." Cecil called out as he stopped swinging and closed his eyes. As he slowly comprehended the darkness around him, the only face he could see was of Walhart, his uncle, someone he thought cared for him. He thought of the screams he heard only a few weeks prior, the smell of ash, the sight of fire taking the castle, that was because of Walhart. It was all his fault, his fault that his father was gone, his fault that they no longer had a home. 'His fault' echoed around his head constantly as his anger grew, and a fire sparked inside of him. He opened his dark red eyes, now burning with blue flames, and screamed as he swung his sword towards the dummy. The sword burst into flames as he swung, increasing its length and slicing the dummy clean in two. As the swing came to an end, Cecil felt the world around him grow dark, his left hand throbbing in pain, as he quickly fainted, barely hearing his mother, Richard, and Nia call out to him as she ran towards him.

* * *

The ship went into a panic when all was said and done, even Orvil running down to the group to see what had happened. They quickly got Cecil to the room and Nia used one of the spare healing staff to see if she could help. Thankfully he had only passed out from exhaustion, the sudden burst of strength draining everything from him.

"Milady...are you ok?" Richard asked as he stood next to Celes. It had been over an hour since the incident, and they were now all back inside of her room, Cecil laying in bed breathing heavily while sweat pooled on his skin. "I'm sorry, if I knew…"

"It's fine Richard, no one expected it." Celes quickly cut him off. "...Scendscale...do you know how long it's been since someone of our family has been able to use that skill? And at such a young age."

"Generations, milady. I suppose we should have seen it coming, with his...well." Richard sighed as he gestured to Cecil's left hand, which was wrapped in a bandage from slight burns.

"Yes...we should have. I'm so afraid for his life now, what will happen in the future that will call him into action...but at the same time I can't help but be proud of the things he might do." she smiled as she reached forward and stoked Cecil's head. "Richard, continue your training with him, please. I will teach him magic when the time is needed."

"It will be my pleasure milady. I will leave you both alone then, I'm sure Cecil will need his sleep to recover. Nia will be in the next room for the time being, call on her if you need to use a healing staff on him." Richard smiled before bowing and walking out of the room.

Celes continued to smile as she looked at Cecil, leaning over and kissing him on his forehead. "I hope for your safety, my little prince. The future will be hard for you, but you are strong like your father, you will make it through with a smile on your face."

* * *

Cecil woke up a day after the incident, feeling no worse for wear all things considered. He continued his training with Richard, though at a slightly slower pace to make sure to not accidentally use Scendscale again. With the training keeping him busy, the next week flew by quickly, the ship finally setting its sights on Regna Ferox by the end of it.

"Land ho!" Orvil called out as one of the main ports for Ferox came into view. "Raise the royal colors men! We want them to know who's coming in." he shouted out, a resounding 'Aye Sir' coming from the deck. "Hopefully they still remember the colors." he said under his breath.

Celes and her family made their way to the deck after the call out, watching the port town coming closer and closer.

"What is your plan when we reach port milady?" Richard asked as he finished strapping on one of his pauldrons.

"We ask for an audience with one of the Khans, see if they would be willing to let us live in Ferox and if there is anything we can do to earn that privilege. If not we head towards Ylisse and request the same of the Exalt." Celes stated as she wrapped a blanket around Celene to keep her warm.

"Simple, all things considered milady."

"Simple is all I need Richard. I'm not looking for luxury." Celes sighed as Cecil grabbed onto her hand.

As the ship came into the port and laid anchor next to one of the several stone docks, what seemed to be a dock manager ran over to the ship as the crew placed the gangplank onto the dock. He stood at attention at the end of the plank as Celes walked down, giving a short bow to her as she stepped onto the dock.

"Greetings, Queen of Valm, it is a pleasure to meet you." the manager said coarsely, obviously nervous at the encounter. Celes giggled before responding.

"Please, don't worry yourself so much. I won't snap you like a twig if you mess up a sentence." she smiled as the manager rubbed the back of his neck.

"Uh, right. Umm, so how can we help you your highness? We haven't seen a royal ship from Valm in several years." the manager asked, slightly relieved but still rigged.

"I must request an audience from you Khan, things have...let us say my family is not in good graces with the new rulers of Valm." she said with a strained voice.

"Oh...I'm so sorry to hear that milady. Of course I'm sure Khan Basilio would be willing to meet with you...if he was here. He's currently at Arena Ferox for the Tournament, but we can send a messenger ahead to let him know you are here and on your way, we can also get a carriage ready to take you there."

"That sounds perfect, thank you so much for your help." Celes smiled as she bowed slightly, which the manager returned.

"The pleasure is mine, I will go and get that all ready for you and have someone retrieve you when the the carriage is ready." the manager said as he ran off.

"He sure was nervous." Nia commented as watched the man run off.

"I'm sure this is the first time meeting royalty besides one of the Khans, it's to be expected Nia." Richard stated, trying to save some dignity for the manager.

"Whatever the case we should thank the gods he was so willing to help." Celes said as she heard steps coming down the gangplank. Turning around she found Orvil coming up to them.

"Well, milady, we have safely made it to Valm. What would you like us to do now?"

"Do what you would like, Orvil. I doubt I will be traveling again off this continent, so I sadly no longer am in need to this vessel. Perhaps you could take on becoming one of the merchant vessels of this port, I'm sure they would be happy to have another ship."

"Not as honorable as transporting royalty, but a good job nonetheless. Nevertheless my crew and myself will always be loyal to you milady, call upon us if you ever need a ship and we will come running."

"Of course, thank you Orvil. And thank you all as well, may the god's bless you for the rest of your lives!" Celes called out to the crew on deck, giving them a bow.

"May the Gods bless you with good tidings, Queen Celes." the crew shouted back as Orvil made his way back up the plank.

Nia and Richard both bowed to the men as well before the group started their way down the dock, finding a small area with a few crates they could sit on while waiting for the manager to come back. Nia played with Celene to keep her occupied, while Richard continued a small training routine with Cecil. As they two children had they're fun, Celes looked out in the distance across the sea, only being interrupted as the manager came back almost thirty minutes later.

"Milady, I'm sorry it took so long for us to get the carriage ready." the manager huffed as he ran up towards the group. Celes smiled as she stood up and grabbed onto Cecil's hand.

"No worries, I assume the carriage is ready then?"

"Yes, and a messenger has been sent ahead of you to inform the Khan. Follow me please and we will send you on your way." the manager said as he gestured in the direction he was heading.

"Oh, and I hope this will not intrude on you, good sir, but please if anyone asks about us being here, please lie to them. I do not need anyone unwanted following after us." Celes stated as she put her hand on the manager's shoulder.

"Of course, milady." the manager smiled slightly as Celes took her hand off of him.

Reaching the carriage and packing everything they needed onto it, the group set off on their way to the arena, a journey that took two uneventful days to make. But soon they reached the large Arena, a large party continuing outside as the Tournament was just about to get started the day after.

* * *

Yells of merriment and songs of joy surrounded the carriage as it made its way towards the Arena, Celes and her children smiling as they looked out the carriage window the party goers.

"These people definitely know how to have a party, last time we had one this big was the day after little Celene was born." Nia laughed as she saw a drunk man fall down smiling and laughing.

"Of course, this only happens once every two years. Why wouldn't they want to celebrate, Nia." Richard laughed "They're here to watch a fight between the chosen warriors of the East and West Khans, and the winning team decides who has full control of Ferox for the next two years. You think this is bad, wait until the Tournament is actually over."

"Can't wait to see that hellstorm." Nia smiled as they reached the arena entrance. Richard hopped off from the front of the carriage and opened the doors for the others. Celes led the way, Cecil and Celene with her, up to the front gates, where the guards gave a quick salute.

"Queen Celes, Khan Basilio is waiting for you, follow us." the guards said as they opened the door for the group, allowing them to pass before closing the doors and walking in front of the group. They led them through several large hallways before reaching a large meeting room, where they found a large man they assumed to Basilio waiting for them with a young boy about the same age as Cecil talking to him. As the group got closer, Basilio looked up and grinned at them.

"Well I'll be, now what would Valmese royalty want we me." Basilio laughed as Celes walked up to him.

"Ha, former Valmese royalty, Khan Basilio. We are looking for a place to live, simple as that."

"Straight to the point I see. Jericho, take the little ones and go see Olivia, leave the talking for the adults." Basilio said as he looked down at the young boy near him.

"Sure thing, come on!" the boy smiled as he started to walk off. Cecil looked up at his mother, who gave him a smile and a slight push on the back, so he ran off after Jericho. Celes looked over at Nia next, who gave a nod and followed after then with Celene.

"So what do you mean by 'former' royalty? I've heard horror stories about you all the way over here in Ferox, who in the hell would want to go up against you?" Basilo questioned as he turned back to Celes.

"I assure you most of those stories are probably false...mostly. That said a violent coop ensued in Valm, led by my cousin Walhart. My husband is most likely dead, I had to flee my home to keep my children safe, and that tyrant now sits on the throne of Valm. I sadly have nothing left but my name and my family."

"So you decided to come here, with a tyrant on your tail who's most likely wanting to kill you, and talk to me? Do you really just want a place to live or do you want an army to get your home back?"

"...I would love to get my home back, Khan Basilio, but I am not going to risk another nations lives to get it back. For whatever reason Walhart let us go, he's made no attempt to catch us on our trip, so I believe we are seen as no longer a threat. I'm looking for a home so that I may raise my children in peace, nothing more. Is that a problem." Celes replied with a glare, Basilio gladly grinning back.

"HA, not a problem at all!" Basilo laughed loudly. "Unfortunately I don't think we'd be the best place to raise your young ones, and unless you wanna start chopping logs we really don't have anything appropriate for you to do." he said with a frown.

"So is there's nothing you can do for us?" Celes asked calmly.

"Now I didn't go and say that. Ylisse just got out of a war...well being damned honest it was more of a massacre, with Plegia four years ago, and I've heard rumors it's been hard on the new Exalt since her father died just last year. Now I'm thinking, maybe, just maybe, having someone personally involved in ruling a country would be able to give her sound advice?" he smiled with the idea.

"I...I would be honored if she would allow me. It's more than I had expected to find when we made our way over here, and it's great enough of an possiblity that I would regret not taking the chance. Richard, get the cart ready, we leave for Ylisse tomo…" Celes started, being interrupted by Basilio.

"Hold your horses, I might be able to recognize Valmese royalty since I've met you before, but Ylisse has been out of contact with Valm for generations, they won't know who you are and they might nor believe you by just stating it. So let's make a deal…" Basilio smiled widely. "You become my champion for this Tournament, and I'll get a personal letter wrote up for the Exalt with my backing of who you are. And hey, if you win that's a bonus!"

"A sound deal, Khan Basilio, I accept." Celes nodded while Richard stared at her.

"Milady, I don't want to judge your actions but are you sure that's wise?"

"Oh don't worry about me, Richard, I can handle myself, it won't be a problem. But please go fetch the Zofia for me, I need to get some practice in before the match."

"Right away, milady." Richard replied as he walked off.

"I'll make it easy on ya too, normally this is a big shebang with two small forces fighting each other, but with just how important my new champion is I think I can make it a one on one and still have everyone satisfied with the outcome." Basilio nodded to Celes, before a slight frown came to him. "Though it might be difficult, heard the kid gotta hold of a strong one this year, but she kept their identity under wraps."

"Doesn't matter who it is, I have more at stake. They will lose the match." Celes remarked with a scoff.

"Ha! Good to know you're willing to beat someone down, might request your help every Tournament if that's the case." Basilo laughed. "Now, I'll get some rooms ready for you all, then rest up and be ready for tomorrow, can't wait to see that's kids face when I win this year." he laughed as he walked off. "Oh, and I'll have someone retrieve the tykes for you when you get to your rooms." he called back as he exited the room.

"Well, at least this trip will be eventful." Celes shook her head slightly.

* * *

"Ladies and Gentlemens, are you ready for a beatdown!" Basilo yelled out with a wicked grin from the Khan's seating location in the arena, the crowds going wild with screams, whoops, and whistles of approval. "Good, cause you all are going to get one. This year's a damn special one, so we got special rules in place. One on one match, winner take all!" he screamed out again, once again getting the crowd pumped much to his pleasure.

Next to him sat the young Eastern Khan, Flavia, who sighed heavily at his bragging. He'd sent a message to her and told her he had an idea to make this more interesting, and Naga knows she was regretting even entertaining the thought that this was a good idea. She sighed as she stood up, and yelled at the crowd as well.

"As compensense for the shorter duel, more food and drink will be handed out around town!" she shouted, gaining roars from the audience. "Now let's get on with it, introducing my champion. Leader of the Greil Mercenaries and descendent of the Radiant Hero himself, Priam!"

The crowds went wild as the young man in question walked out into the arena from the eastern side. He looked much akin to his ancestor at his younger age, he himself not being more than fifteen at the time. Wearing garb similar to Ike's, Priam grabbed Ragnell from his waist and held it high for the audience to see. It's visage was worn and battered, it's hilt having been covered in wraps, but it's splendor still spilt out in waves. The crowds started cheering his name, some noticing a slight smirk appearing on his lips.

"So that's who you were hiding from me. Nice choice runt, but I got you beat." Basilio laughed as he walked to the very edge of the viewing area, Flavia giving him a stink eye all the while. "Introducing MY champion, inheritor of the will of the Twin Dragon gods, descendant of Saint-King Alm, and true heir of Valentia, Queen of Valm, Celes Dragveil!" he shouted at the top of his lungs and the roars became deafening, Flavia's jaw almost hitting the floor as said champion walked out into the arena.

Once again in her ceremonial armor, the gold plates glimmering in the firelight of the arena, she held in her hand one of her family's most prized possessions, the Beloved Zofia. A black tome on her hip, she raised the pale white blade above her head as she smiled at the crowd.

"It would seem that this is to be a battle of heroic descendants, this will be one for the ages! Now, are you ready!?" Basilio questioned the crowd, the roars of the crowd his answer. "Then give us a good fight you two, to the death or whoever forfeits first!" he yelled down to the two contestants.

Priam made the first move, rushing forwards with an underhanded swing towards Celes' stomach, who barely had enough time to dodge to the left under the blade before he swung it back around towards her. She spun the Zofia to parry Ragnell out of the way, backing up as Priam recovered and tried to continue his onslaught. Parrying each blow as best she could, she finally found an opening as Priam raised his sword above his head. She stepped forward and raised her sword to meet the oncoming swing, stopping it where the blades met and using her right foot to kick Priam in the chest which sent him tumbling to the ground back from the force. She took the opportunity and swung down at his chest, which he barely blocked with Ragnell, though sacrificing his right hand as her blade cut across the back of it. Rolling backwards to get back onto his feet, he had to quickly raise his blade to block another strike from Celes, pushing back on her sword to push her away before pressing onto the hard stone floor with his foot and launching towards her, shoulder checking her in the chest and causing her to stumble onto the ground, Priam following up with an overhead strike aimed at her chest. Using his own momentum against him, Celes blocked the strike and kicked his stomach, knocking the wind out of him and using what momentum was left from his movement to vault him over her and into the ground. Jumping to her feet, Celes looked back to Priam with a smile, who was trying to suck air back into his lungs as he slowly stood up. The roars of the crowd showed how much they were enjoying the show, seemingly half of the audience yelling out Priam's name and the other half shouting Celes'.

"Good move." Priam coughed as he looked over at her, a small smirk crossing his lips.

"You left yourself open, I used it." Celes smiled back. "Though for someone so young you are fairly well trained, I'm impressed." she stated as they started to circle each other.

"Started training with my father when deemed I was old enough, been training ever since."

"I respect the dedication, but that does not mean you will best me in this duel." Celes smiled as she lunged forwards with stab to Priam's chest, which he caught with Ragnell's crossguard and forced her back.

"Yep, that's gonna depend on who's better." Priam smiled as he lunged forward with flurry of blows, Celes blocking as many strikes as she could but one managed to break through her guard and sliced her arm open. It wasn't superficially deep, but if this battle kept going she'd lose the use of it until she could get it healed. Switching Zofia to her other hand, she planned out her options as quickly as she could before Priam launched himself forwards once again to start attacking her. She sadly wasn't used to using her left hand for fighting, so she was constantly getting pushed back from his blows as Priam kept up her onslaught. She had one chance at this, and she had to do it perfectly if she wanted to win this fight. Seconds felt like minutes as she watched every swing and waiting for the right moment to strike, finally finding one as Priam swung hard from the left and she swung to parry it. As the blades struck each other pain quickly shot through her arm, but she ignored it best she could as she swung a right hook at Priam's head with her right fist, knocking him in his right cheek and causing him to stumble back. She took this opportunity to strike, flinging her hand to the tome on her hip, her hand bursting into flame that she deftly flung towards the recovering Priam.

"Ragnarok!" she screamed as the flame turned into several fire balls that surrounded Priam, who noticed them too late as he shook his head to recover from the blow. The balls quickly rotated around him, before closing in on him rapidly.

"Crap!" he shouted as the fire balls impacted against him and flung him into the air from the resulting explosion. He landed with a thud, Celes jumping forwards towards him and noticing only small burns covering his skin from the fire.

"_He's more resilient than I thought." _she thought to herself as she jumped and landed her knee on Priam's stomach, a large grunt confirming that he was still conscious. She reached forwards and grabbed his neck, pointing Zofia against its side as she smiled at him.

"Or it will depend on who's smarter. Submit."

"Heh, smart move lady." Priam coughed. "I forfeit!"

The crowds roars shook the foundation as Celes stood up and held her hand out to Priam, who took it and helped himself up onto his feet. Basilio was up in the viewing area seemingly wanting to dance like a little girl who just got told her crush liked her back, Flavia slumping down with a frown in defeat.

"Hah hah hah, finally got the title back. Drink's on me tonight everyone!" Basilio shouted out as the crowd started shouting out his name.

The remaining part of the day flew by quickly, mainly due to the fact that it was a non stop party throughout the entire city. Celes was sure that Basilio drank seemingly 6 barrels of Feroxi wine himself, but he was fun to be around drunk so she couldn't complain. She also got a rough greeting from Khan Flavia, who was obviously pissed that she lost the tournament but she quickly lost herself to drink along with Basilio. Celes also heavily partook in the drinking, hoping to forgo some of the lingering memories of the past week. Thankfully she sent Nia to watch over Cecil and Celene, both of whom seemed to have become close friends with Basilio's seemingly adopted children. Jericho was just as loud and abrasive as Basilio was, but a kind heart could be seen underneath the child's rough exterior. Olivia, on the other hand, was as timid as a mouse. It made Celes laugh as she constantly found her hiding behind Jericho as if trying to hide from the world, but she found the young girl adorable in many different ways. After hours of drinking, Richard forcibly excused her and took her to her room, where she quickly passed out on her bed.

Waking hours later to a massive headache, Celes dressed herself before making her way to the main audience chamber of the arena, finding her group already up and ready to go with Basilio waiting for her with them.

"Well if it isn't my drunken champion, how's the headache?" Basilio called out to her as she walked up.

"Painful." she replied groggily.

"Good, means the wine worked. Now then, I had my men fill your wagon up with everything you need to make it to Ylisse, and you'll have armed guards with you until you reach the Longfort, after that you're on your own. And as promised.." he reached into his pant pocket and pulled out a small letter with his personal stamp sealing it. "One letter straight from me confirming who you are. That should help you get a private audience with the Exalt."

"Great, then we shall head out immediately. Thank you for your kindness, Khan Basilio." Celes nodded as she grabbed the letter from him.

"I should be the one thanking you, I got full reign of Ferox for the next two years cause of you, I'll make sure this place is run properly again instead of all the stuff Flavia was doing. I'm sure the tykes are going to miss you as well, but they had classes to attend to today so they couldn't join us to see you off."

"Let them know that we hope to see them again, I'm sure my children would love to spend more time with them as well."

"Will do, now let's get you on your way." Basilio laughed as he led them to the wagon, following them to the edge of the city before parting with a laugh and smile. The trip to the Longfort was thankfully uneventful, with them passing through without any trouble into the halidom of Ylisse two days later. Though as if bad luck kept following them, they ran into trouble as they neared Ylisse, in a large forest to the north of the city, finding a young woman running out of the trees and into their path with two young twins in her arms.

_?_

She ran through the forest as fast as her feet could take her, angry shouts flowing from behind her as she tried to escape the men chasing after her and her eight year old children. She was carrying both of them in her arms, both of whom were crying silently into her jacket, slowing her down but she refused to allow any harm to come to them, not after what they had finally escaped. Soaked to the core thanks to unrelenting rainstorm that had rolled in only minutes prior, her white hair, tied up in a ponytail, was matted down with sweat and rain as she had been running for almost half an hour, refusing to be caught. As she bolted past a large tree in her path she saw a clearing coming up that she prayed to Naga was a road. Breaking into a sprint despite the extra weight, she shouted at the top of her lungs as she broke through the trees.

"Help! Please for the love of Naga someone help!" she shouted with tears as she came face to face with a large wagon that had stopped on a dime as she screamed from the trees. The man driving the cart, seemingly a knight due to his armor, quickly jumped down into the mud as she ran around the cart and stopped on the other side. Holding her children close to her chest, she could hear the shouts of the men chasing her get louder and louder, but a quick movement besides her made her jump out of her skin. She was about to scream before a hand covered her mouth, a mellow voice talking to her.

"Don't worry, we won't hurt you. What's going on?"

She tried to talk but she couldn't catch her breath, tears falling from her eyes as she thought she might finally have help. After several precious seconds passed, she finally was able to get a few words out from her ragged breath.

"Please help, they'll take my children away."

An angry scowl came to the face of the woman who had just talked to her, before the woman rubbed the top of her head trying to calm her down.

"Don't worry, I won't let that happen." she said strictly as she walked around her and to the other side of the cart. "Richard, kill anyone who comes out of that forest. Not a single one is to make it out alive."

"Yes, milady." the man spoke as she could hear him pull out a sword, the shouts of the men chasing her finally breaking through the forest and onto the road. A great roar could be heard, she guessed from the knight, as she heard the tump of a body hitting the ground and the men started yelling loudly. The fighting went on for several minutes before quieting down, both the knight and woman walking back to the other side of the cart, both slightly covered in blood but no worse for wear.

"In Ylisse for barely a day and we've already killed people." the woman huffed. "No matter, are you alright miss?"

The words tumbled out of her mouth, exhaustion and relief collapsing on her at once. "Oh gods thank you, I thought I..I thought I was going to lose everything."

"No thanks needed miss, I'm glad you ran into us when you did. My name is Celes, and this is Richard, my personal knight." Celes smiled at her, Richard giving a quick nod as the rain started picking up even more. "Let's move inside before it gets even worse, we need to dry all of you off." she said as she grabbed her by the shoulder and brought her behind the wagon, a maid watching over two kids with the same hair color as Celes looking over at them as Celes called to her, quickly moving over and helping them up. The maid had to pry her arms away from her children, but she gave her a reassuring smile as she took her son away from her and sat him on the bench, then doing the same with her daughter. They both looked tired, their eyes red from tears and fear and their white hair as matted as their mothers. The maid grabbed a towel and started to dry both of them off as Celes moved over and started helping her dry off as well.

"Cecil, grab me one of the vulneraries please, and grab a few blankets for the little ones." Celes called out to the young boy sitting next to his sister.

"Right!" he smiled as he jumped off the bench and started scrounging through the bags near the front of the wagon.

"Now, may I ask your name miss?" Celes asked as she tossed the towel on the floor and looked her over, checking for anymore wounds besides the scratches on her face.

"It's...Reina." she replied as she watched Cecil walk over with two oversized blankets handing one to his mother with the vulnerary his mother had requested, who then wrapped it around Reina and told her to drink the potion, as Cecil wrapped the other one around her kids, making sure they were warm enough with a bright smile to both of them before jumping up on the bench next to her daughter, trying to get her to talk.

"Well Reina it's a pleasure to meet you, now only if we met in better circumstances. Can I ask why you were being chased?"

"I..no offense miss, but..I don't.."

"Trust me? I wouldn't blame you, if I were in your shoes. No mater, I won't pry, and we'll get you to safety We're heading to Ylisstol now, I think you can find a safe place to be there." Celes smiled at her. She wanted to protest, Ylisstol was the worst place to go to for her children, especially after the purge, but she couldn't din the strength as she slowly started to pass out from exhaustion. Noticing this, Celes moved her over next to her children, who were already asleep with her daughters head resting on Cecil's shoulder and her sons head resting on her daughters. "May I ask their names as well?"

"Robin and Raven." she said as she slowly drifted off to sleep.

"Beautiful names, Reina." Celes smiled as she walked back to the front of the wagon. "Keep us off anything bumpy Richard, I'd like them to be able to sleep."

"Of course Milady, we should be to Ylisstol in a few hours." Richard replied, rain battering off his armor as it started to slightly clear up.

Hours later Reina finally roused from her sleep, finding her son and daughter happily talking to Cecil about their likes and dislikes. Her thoughts were interrupted before she could even start to fully think on what had happened.

"Good morning Reina." Celes smiled, handing her a small ration from one of the bags to snack on. "They woke up about an hour ago, took my son almost that long to get them to open up."

"I haven't seen them this at ease in months…" Reina smiled slightly as she opened up the ration and started eating.

"My son tends to do that. We're almost to Ylisstol, is there any place you know you can stay?"

"No, if I'm honest Ylisstol is probably not safe for us. I was going to head further south to see if I can find us a place to live without...that happening again."

"Well stay with us until we get inside the city at least, I don't want to think what might happen."

"Of course, thank you." Reina smiled as the maid walked over to her, holding a small sack.

"Ah, thank you Nia." Celes grabbed the bag and handed to Reina. "This is around four hundred gold, it should keep your family fed and happy for months to come if not longer."

"Oh gods, I can't accept this Celes, not after you being the one who saved us."

"Nonsense, I'm giving you this because i know how it feels to be on the run, if anything I want to give you more than that but we don't have as much as I'd wish myself." Celes laughed as she forced the sack into her hands.

"I..oh gods, thank you. I'll repay you, somehow…"

"Don't worry about it. Now how about you tell me about yourself, just to past the time until we reach the city."

* * *

They reached the city an hour later, Reina thanking them once again as her twins gave Cecil a quick hug before they walked off to wander the streets. Smiling as they walked away, Celes hopped back onto the wagon and Richard took them the rest of the way to the palace. Riding up to the gates, the guards ran up to them with their hands outstretched.

"Hold, the Exalt isn't expecting anyone today, who are you?" one of the guards asked as Celes hopped down, grabbing the letter from Basilio from her jacket and handing it forwards.

"I am Celes Dragveil, I was wanting to request an audience with the Exalt about a possible job." she bowed as the guard looked at the letter. Turning it over and seeing the Khans stamp, he clammed up as he handed the letter back.

"I will have someone fetch the Exalt right away, please follow me milady." the guard said as he waved for the other to raise the gate. "Someone get this wagon to the stables, stat!" he yelled as some of the guards ran over and respectfully grabbed the reins from Richard, who jumped off and joined Celes as Nia brought Cecil and Celene over to her. The guard bowed before turning around and marching up the path to the palace, guiding the group to the main hall of the palace. Celes was surprised as they walked in to find a young woman, no older than fifteen, standing there regally waiting for them with an older man in fine robes and two younger children, one a boy with royal blue hair and the other a young girl with striking blond hair the same color as the supposed Exalt.

"Exalt Emmeryn, Lady Celes Dragveil." the guard bowed before walking off to the side, the young woman waking forwards.

"It is a pleasure to meet you, Lady Celes. I was told you have a letter from one of the Khans?"

"Yes, and I was not expecting te Exalt to be so young." Celes bowed slightly, Emmeryn doing the same.

"Yes, my father passed recently and as the oldest I inherited the title. Oh, this is my younger siblings, Chrom and Lissa. And this is my advisor, Winles." Emmeryn said as she gestured to the boy and girl, the boy giving a half baked bow and the girl smiling radiantly at them.

"A pleasure, and this is my knight, Richard, my maid, Nia, and my son and daughter, Cecil and Celene." Celes smiled as she gestured to each in order. "Now onto business, as I don't want to take up too much of your time if you decline, I must ask that you keep everything I'm about to tell you secret, as I do not want to risk the lives of my children."

And so Celes told her tale of the last several weeks, from the battle at her home to the winning the tournament, to the job that she so hopped the Exalt would hire her for. As the story came to an end Emmeryn had a compassionate expression on her face as she looked over to Winles.

"What do you think, Winles?"

"I think I'm getting too old to keep playing politics." Winles smiled. "I'd be honored if you would take my 'daughter' into your service in my stead." the old man laughed as Celes' jaw dropped.

"I would be honored." Emmeryn laughed. "Celes, I would be honored to have you as my advisor, and I ask that you help me make this halidom the best it can be."

"Of course, I aim the do just that." Celes smiled as she bowed, Cecil walking up and doing the same.

"Good, you will live in the palace and given Winles' last name as a cover, and I hope that young Cecil will become good friends with my brother." Emeryn smiled as she looked over to Cecil, who seemed to be focusing on her forehead. She giggled as she explained, "If you are wondering what this is, it is a brand given to me by the Divine Dragon Naga, it shows that I have sacred blood flowing through me." she said as she pointed to her forehead.

"I have one too."

Emmeryn blinked, wondering if she misheard him. "What?"

Cecil unwrapped the bandage on his left hand and held it up to her, Emmeryn's face going slack as she stared at the back of his hand.

There, emblazoned on his flesh, was a pointed cross with two curved thorns extending from the top left and right corners of it. The brand of Duma and Mila, combined as one.

* * *

Across the sea on the continent of Valm, hidden deep in the temple situated at the top of the Mila Tree, a lost swords silver blade began to glow.


	2. Humble Beginnings

_Alright squirt, where were we. Ah, right, Dad just started living at the palace. Anyways we'll skip all the boring parts and jump forwards to just a bit before he and Uncle Chrom met Uncle Robin and Aunt Raven...again, I suppose. Anyways the years passed fairly quickly, Dad's increasing training making him adept with both sword and magic just like Grandma, and with Uncle Chrom as his close friend and sparring partner they kept their skills sharp. Along the way Dad met Mom for the first time when she joined the Pegasus Knight's recruits, having to be at the initiation ceremony along with Uncle Chrom. From what she told me their interactions were few and far between, but she still thought of him as a friend. But we'll go over those things later, too off topic and kinda...depressing on Mom's side of things. Oh, and Uncle Chrom formed the Shepherds, I guess that's a big thing, but now our story takes us a few weeks before everything started to go down hill, at Aunty Emm's birthday party of all things._

* * *

"I have asked it once, I'll ask it again. Why in the hell am I wearing this, Chrom?" Cecil complained as he tug at the overly tight noble outfit he was wearing. His outfit was a light red and posh button up shirt, a dark red overcoat with a golden left pauldron with tassels hanging off of it, tan slacks with non functioning buttons going up the side, and black polished boots. Chrom, who was walking besides him, was wearing a similar outfit with a blue shirt and jacket instead. "And who decided on them? Did they have to make them matching?"

"Maribelle was the one who chose the outfits, so yes, they _had _to be matching. And it's Emm's birthday, you, Lissa, Celene, and I _have _to go anyways. But I thought it would be nice for the other Shepherds to join in on the festivities seeing as how they live on the castle grounds anyways." Chrom said as he tried to hide the fact that he was also tugging at the side of his outfit.

"Yes I know that part, I'm asking why exactly we're wearing the chicken suits? I don't see anyone complaining about Sully not wearing a dress." he stated as he pointed back to Sully, who was wearing her standard red knight's armor. A look of disgust came over her face as she overheard what Cecil had said.

"Hell no, I'd rather jump into a rotten latrine before I got in one of those things."

"Proving my point, she'd snap our legs in half before we'd get her in one. She's exempt from wearing a dress, why can't I wear my normal court attire? It's more comfortable than this and more stylish if I do say so myself." Cecil said with a raised eyebrow.

Chrom sighed before he whispered, "Look if I had my choice I'd be wearing my regular attire too, but I'd rather not get a head injury from Maribelle if she caught _either_ of us at this party without these outfits."

Cecil shivered at the thought of her parasol, "Swear to Naga she acts like everyone's wife, never stops until she gets her way." he whispered back, before a light cough from behind them made both of them go pale.

"Ahem, did you say something about me, Cecil?" Maribelle asked, coming up behind them with Lissa and Celene in tow, both wearing matching outfits as well.

"Uh..no! I was just telling Chrom how great your fashion sense was on deciding on these outfits, you were the one who decided on them weren't you?"

"Of course! Couldn't have either of you come to this party in anything like the rags you normally wear." Maribelle declared proudly.

"Uh..right. Well thank you, Maribelle." Chrom said as he rubbed the back of his head.

"My pleasure, now then we really should hurry, no reason to be late." she said as she walked in front of the two and walked off, Lissa and Celene both following behind. They both looked back to the two of them and mouthed 'Nice save' before hurrying off after Maribelle.

"Dear Naga, my life actually flashed before my eyes." Cecil shivered, shaking his head to get any lingering fears out.

"Same." Chrom sighed in relief. "Alright, we're close to the ballroom, is everyone accounted for?" he asked as he looked back at the group following him, which included Stahl, Sully, Vaike, Miriel, Sumia, and Frederick. "Hey where's Kellem?"

"Right here!" a voice called out from behind Frederick.

"Ah, good." Chrom smiled at him, before Cecil pointed something out.

"Now that I think of it, Vaike, you're _actually_ wearing a shirt for once." Cecil commented as he looked at Vaike, who was wearing a dress shirt that was a little too small for him.

"The Teach is many things, stupid isn't one of them."

"That's debatable." Cecil said snarkily, causing the rest of the Shepherds to laugh, minus Miriel who just slightly smiled. "Sumia, you doing ok back there? I'm surprised you haven't…" he was cut off as Sumia yelped, having tripped and fell onto the ground, a sharp crack echoing around them as her face hit the brick floor. "Ouch...you guys go on ahead, I'll help her up." he said as he turned around and jogged over to the fallen Pegasus Knight, the other's quickly moving along the hall.

"Ow." Sumia said with a wince as Cecil knelt down next to her.

"That looked worse than normal. Come on, up and at 'em." he said as he light grabbed her arm and helped her up, trying to make sure she kept her balance. "Hold on, stay still…" he said as he examined her face, making sure there wasn't any scratches or bruises on her. "Well you didn't break your nose at least."

"Lucky me." Sumia sighed as she straightened out her dress. "Knew I shouldn't have worn heels, that was just asking for trouble."

"Oh don't be like that, you look good with them on. With any luck we might actually get Chrom to ask you to dance with him, we just have to beat off the sixteen hundred other women trying to dance with him." Cecil chuckled, trying to get Sumia to smile. It worked, much to his satisfaction.

Sumia giggled before asking, "Why are you so determined to get him to ask me out?"

"Because you're both my friends and I want to see you happy." Cecil smiled with closed eyes.

"And?"  
"And I'm also trying to win a bet we made." Cecil said as he opened his eyes and looked away from her. "First one to get hitched has to wear a bunny suit to the Spring Festival. I'm trying to get a hold of one of those snapshot tomes, make sure no one ever forgets Chrom with a cottontail." he grinned like a cat, working better than he thought as Sumia burst out laughing.

"If that..does happen, please make sure..I get..copies." Sumia said in between her laughing fit.

"Will do future Princess of Ylisse. Now come on, let's get to the party before Maribelle takes both of our hides." He smiled as he held out his arm.

"Always the gentleman, thank you Cecil." Sumia smiled as she wrapped her arm around his, helping her keep her balance as they made their way to the grand hall. "Are you sure he's interested in me?"

"If he isn't then I'm the next Exalt and Lissa the new court jester. Trust us, we've both caught him glancing your way when you're not looking...same as you do when he isn't." he chuckled, Sumia blushing. "Don't worry yourself to death, Sumia, it'll all work out."

"I hope so Cecil." she tried to smile as they reached the main door and walked in, the announcer yelled out their names before continuing on to the next guests coming in.

"And now we die." Cecil smiled as he unhooked his arm from Sumia's. "Have a good evening, milady. Head to the balcony in about...3 minutes, I'll try to get Chrom over that way." he joked, smiling as he turned to Sumia and gave a curt bow.

"Thanks Cecil, hehe, you have a wonderful evening as well, good sir." Sumia joked back with a light curtsy before walking away, leaving Cecil by himself.

"Now then, to hide from the hungry harpies." Cecil said to himself as he moseyed through the crowd trying to find either his sister or Emmeryn, not seeing either in the large crowded room. He did, however, notice Chrom already being surrounded by several suitors and looking severely uncomfortable. "Or head right into their den...damn it Chrom." he sighed to himself as he walked over to him. He overheard what he was saying as he got close.

"Oh, yes I have been to southern Ylisse recently. It's a beautiful place to be in during spring, sadly my last visit there didn't end up the most...relaxing event ever." Chrom stated as Cecil could see sweat building up on his forehead.

"Was that the bear incident or the bandit one?" Cecil questioned as he stopped next to Chrom, trying to free him from the nobles surrounding him.

"Cecil! Good to see your here. And it was the bandit incident." Chrom smiled widely as he looked over to Cecil.

"Yes, not the most relaxing of tasks." he chuckled before looking at the nobles, "Oh, my apologies, it's a pleasure to meet you ladies." he bowed deeply, getting a giggle out of one of them.

"It's a pleasure to meet you as well, Lord Cecil." one of the nobles smiled at him.

"Please, none of the Lord nonsense, it's an honorary title if anything. Now as much as I'd hate to take the Prince away from you, Exalt Emmeryn has requested you to head to the balcony Chrom, something about Shephard business needing to be taken care of later. She will be there shortly so I would head over there now." Cecil said as he turned to Chrom, making sure his face wasn't seen by the nobles as he winked with his left eye.

Chrom's face lit up and gave an even wider smile. "Oh, of course. I'll head there right now. Ladies, have a wonderful evening." he bowed before quickly walking off to the balcony, Cecil noticing Sumia following him out.

"Such a shame...well would you accompany us for the moment, Sir Cecil? Perhaps join us for a dance?" one of the nobles asked.

"As much as I would love to, I have unfortunately made a promise for my first dance to someone else." he lied through his teeth, hoping they wouldn't notice.

"A shame." the noble looked annoyed. "Well fine, have a good evening, Sir Cecil."

"You as well, Milady." Cecil said as he walked off, looking for anyone he could use as a safe zone so the nobles wouldn't follow. Looking around, he saw several of the Shepherds milling about. Stahl was currently picking out food from one of the many dessert tables, Sully standing with him looking absolutely bored. Mirel was standing near the dance floor, watching the movements of the dancers as far as he could tell. Frederick seemed to have been cornered by the same nobles Cecil had just gotten away from, and once again Kellam had just disappeared. Vaike, however, was making a scene over at the drink table, downing as much alcohol as he could in a very Vaike-like manner. Shaking his head with a laugh, he made his way through a thick portion of the crowd, finding a familiar redhead frowning over in the corner by herself. He had to remind himself that she was the daughter of Lord Windsor and Lady Mira, so of course she'd be here, but that didn't explain why she was alone. He quickly made his way over to her, hoping nothing was truly wrong.

Cordelia spun the wine in her glass around in a circle, trying to look like she was at least kind of enjoying herself, though if you asked her she'd say it was pretty obvious. She sighed, slumping her shoulders a bit.

"_If only he…"_ her thoughts were interrupted as Cecil walked in front of her.

"Cordelia, are you all right?" Cecil asked as he walked up to her, concern filling his voice.

"Oh, Cecil!" she jumped, almost spilling her wine. "No, no I'm fine just...wishing something might happen that has no chance. Don't worry about me."

"I wish I could, but it looks like you just found out your mother died." Cecil said without thinking, his eyes going wide as he realized what he said. "Uh...that's not what happened right?"

"No! No, it's...well…"

"You don't have to talk about it if you don't want to." he said with a soft voice. "I know you haven't had the easiest year because of the other recruits..."

'It's just…"

Before she could continue the crowd around them whispering and murmuring, pointing over at the balcony doors. Curious to what was going on, both Cecil and Cordelia looked where everyone was ponting. Coming through the balcony door was Chrom and Sumia, Chrom smiling as he lead Sumia over to dance floor. She had a dopey smile adorning her face, obviously happy at the fact that either Chrom _finally _confessed or that he at least asked her to dance with him, and Chrom's face was as red as Cecil's hair, so it was obvious that he was extremely happy at the current outcome as well.

"_Well finally! Took him long enough." _he thought to himself as a smile grew wide on his face. His happy thoughts, however, was interrupted by the surprising silence behind him. He was shocked, he thought Cordelia would be happy for her best friend but heard nothing. Looking back to Cordelia, his brain stopped working for just a moment. She stood there, eyes wide and on the verge of tears, her lips trembling, and from the looks of it she was about to drop her glass. She had a smile through the trembling, as if she was trying to look happy but ultimately failing. His brain restarted with a jolt, small memories quickly flashing in his head, and they hit him like an axe. The short glances over her shoulder, the over compensation during training when Chrom was around, the special lilac perfume she wore when at formal events when he'd be around, just in general the amount of things she did that seemed like she was trying to get his attention. She was in love with Chrom...she was in love with Chrom and _he_ just paired him up with her best friend. And she was having a _really _bad reaction to this, he guessed she thought any chance she had was gone thanks to that stupid grin on Chrom's face. Oh boy this wasn't good.

"_Shit...shit, shit, shit I'm a fucking idiot!" _he screamed inside his head as me moved over and grabbed the glass from Cordelia so she didn't drop it, which was easy as she didn't have a grip on it anymore. He placed it down and walked in front of her, blocking her view of his friends. "Cordelia, look at me." he said somberly, which she did while trying to hold back her tears. "I'm sorry...I'm so, so, sorry. Don't be mad at Sumia, or Chrom, don't be mad at him either, be mad at me if you want to be angry. I've been trying to get those two together for years, and apparently I never noticed you had feelings for him in the slightest. I feel like such an idiot right now that I wish you'd slap me for being one." he gave a very weak chuckle.

She raised her hand and lightly tapped his cheek, as if she didn't have the strength to slap him, as she started to cry. "I'm not..angry. I thought it..would never..happen anyways...and I'm so happy for Sumia..that her dream could come true..in whatever sense. But I never..thought it would hurt so much." she said in between sobs. Cecil, saying fuck it to normal conventions, took a step forwards and wrapped her in a hug, resting her forehead on his shoulder as she continued to cry. He stayed there for a few moments, letting Cordelia's tears dry up so she could try and look dignified afterwards. As she stopped crying he let go and took a step back, seeing her eyes red from the tears. He knew he had to do something, but what…

He smiled, a look of sadness still covering his face, but still a smile of utmost compassion at her, which she would never admit to anyone but Sumia months later that it made her heart flutter, as he held out his hand and said "I know I probably don't deserve an answer after how stupid I was...but would you honor me with a few dances Cordelia?"

With a few sniffles, she gave a slight smile to him and grabbed his hand. "I would love to."

With a slight tug he guided her to the dance floor, the murmurs and whispering starting up again as the crowd saw Cecil with her. As they reached the floor, he turned around and moved their hands in the proper positions so they could start.

"Just focus on me and the music, I'd rather you have at least one good memory from this day." he smiled as he started to twirl her around the floor.

Over on the other side of the floor, Celene and Lissa had watched the entire exchange between Cecil and Cordelia. Celene was smiling at the two heading for the dance floor, while Lissa had a devilish smirk.

"I feel like he's yelling at himself for not noticing sooner, but at least he's trying to make things better...if he can anyways." Celene laughed as Cecil raised Cordelia's arm above her head and spun her around. _"Probably should have made sure he knew about Cordelia's crush on Chrom...whoops."_

"Oh, he can make it better. Much better in fact! I need your help with this Celene." Lissa laughed at the ideas in her head. "Let Operation: Wings of Love begin!"

"...what are you going on about?"

"Well I think we can help Cordelia fall for another person, like, say, that one right there." she said as she pointed right at Cecil. "You know for a fact that he thinks she's beautiful, might as well see where this goes with a little...push."

"Oh...well why not, I wouldn't mind Cordelia as a sister-in-law. She makes awesome sweets."

'Right! And hey if that fails we can just hook him up with Maribelle, I'm sure she still writes about that little crush on him from years ago in her diary." she smiled as they both heard someone having a coughing fit behind them. Looking back they saw Maribelle, her face as pink as her dress, as she was trying to wipe away wine that had spit from her mouth.

"We will _not _talk about that!" Maribelle exclaimed to the two, causing the two to burst out laughing.

* * *

The party drew on for hours, guests slowly leaving as it grew late, sleep and drunkenness overtaking many of them. As the last few guests left, the Shepherds, Cordelia, Emmeryn, and Phila were the only ones remaining in the hall. Cecil had stayed with Cordelia for the entire night, trying to keep her mind off of things. It was mostly successful, but by the end of the night her mind had wandered back and tears started once again. Cecil quickly walked her outside the room so the others didn't come over to see what she was wrong. As they walked through the door, he pulled her into a quick hug before placing her right on the other side of the door.

"Wait right here, I have to do something real quick, then we'll get you back to the barracks." he smiled at her, Cordelia trying pull a smile onto her lips but failing. As he turned around and walked back into the room, he looked around, found Sumia, and beelined right to her. Thankfully no one was with her, which made this easier. As he got near her, she looked over and smiled brightly at him.

"Cecil! Tonight was perfect...or it would be if I got the courage to confess...but I got to dance with Chrom, so highlights!" she said with utmost enthusiasm.

"That's great, and I'm happy for you Sumia but I need your help." he said as he placed his hand on her shoulder and pointed out the door. "Cordelia's out there trying not to cry her eyes out cause I'm an idiot and didn't notice she had feelings for our favorite prince. I tried to keep her mind off of it for the night, but I can only do so much. Can you go talk to her, you know her better than I do."

Sumia's eyes widened with shock, having forgotten her best friends crush was also hers as well in the fun of the night. She slapped her cheeks, gave a quick nod and a determined look to Cecil, then quickly headed for the door. Sadly as she crossed the threshold of the door she tripped on thin air again, but to her credit she quickly got up and looked over to where Cordelia was still standing, almost tackling her to the ground in a bear hug from what he could see. He smiled at the interaction before Chrom called out to him.

"Cecil, come here for a moment." Chrom yelled out, causing Cecil to turn around with a sigh. He walked over to him, noticing Emmeryn and Phila standing with him.

"Need something? Oh, and happy birthday Emm." Cecil gave a quick smile to Emm, who returned it.

"Thank you Cecil, the party was enjoyable for the most part." Emmeryn chuckled.

"Ahem, anyways, first off...thank you! Dear Naga I thought those girls were going to try and stick to me all night." Chrom laughed. "They kept asking all kinds of different questions and I was getting a little overwhelmed. I was able to enjoy the rest of the night thanks to you."

"Eh, more nobles trying to get an in with the royal family, had to keep those harpies away from you or one bad drink later we got one of them on the throne." Cecil joked, getting another laugh out of Chrom. "Though maybe I should have, our bet is still ongoing after all."

Chrom paled as the thought finally crossed his mind, Emm looking confused with a raised eyebrow at her younger brother.

"And what is this bet you've made?" she asked with genuine curiosity.

"A..oh, nothing. Just something we made up a while ago." Chrom smiled nervously. "Anyways, Emm, you said you needed to talk to us." he tried to change the topic as fast as he could.

"I suppose I'll ask again later." she sighed. "We've received reports of bandits ransacking the area near Southtown, I was wondering if you'd be willing to head down there and check it out?"

"Of course, it's what we set the Shepherds up for after all." Chrom smiled before raising his voice and calling out to the others to come over to them. "We've got reports of bandits down south threatening some of the villages including Southtown. I'll be taking Lissa, Frederick, Cecil, and Sully with me to check it out, so I need the rest of you to watch over Ylisse while we're gone. Any objections?" he asked, getting silence as a response. "Good, then you're all dismissed. Go get some sleep everyone." he smiled as the rest of the Shepherds besides Cecil left, though you could slightly hear Lissa complaining about having to get up early as she walked off. Cecil looked over to Chrom with a grin.

"You know I don't think you gave me enough time to protest."

"You would've volunteered anyways, thought I'd skip the process."

"Huh, you can learn. Just took you a couple years…"

"Shut up. Go get some rest would you, need you well rested if you're going to snark our way to Southtown." Chrom smiled at the bater.

"Yes boss. You know all we need is a third and we could take this comedy act on the road." Cecil smiled as he started to walk off. "Goodnight Emm, night Phila." he waved back at them as he walked through the doors to the main hall.

"Remind me to thank him for trying to keep Cordelia spirits up tonight. She looked like she was going to start sobbing throughout the party." Phila smiled as she looked over to Chrom.

"I've kinda thought she had a crush on him to be honest, she always seems more at ease when she's around him...or, that's what it seems like from what I've seen." Chrom chuckled.

"And that's why we don't trust you on anything regarding romantic endeavors. You couldn't tell that some of the young noble girls had crushes on you when you were younger, or at least until I sat you down and told you that was the fact." Emmeryn laughed as Chrom's face went red with embarrassment. "But you should get some sleep as well, you might need it with how much fun you had with Sumia tonight." she smiled at Chrom, whose face turned even redder at her statement.

"Uh...right. Night Emm." he said as he quickly walked off, Emmeryn gigging from his reaction.

* * *

Finally freeing himself of the pretentious death trap that was the clothes he was forced to wear, Cecil happily slipped on a light shirt and pants before sitting on his bed and grabbing a book from his nightstand, wanting to at least get a chapter of the book Sumia lent him in before he went to bed. He got distracted before he could even begin as he looked down at the back of his left hand, his brand slightly glowing with power. He frowned when whispers crept themselves into his head, and they seemed to be singing a tune he couldn't recognize. It definitely wasn't any of the old songs the church's used to praise Mila, and it definitely wasn't anything Duma related as far as he could tell, though not many songs of praise remained of the old fell dragon anyways. They sounded melodic and lightly serene, but hints of deep power and underlying shadows were always in the background. It unnerved him to no end, and he sighed heavily as he placed the book back down, expecting not to get any good sleep tonight.

"_Why must they show up now, always when I want to relax." _he sighed as he stood up and grabbed one of his spare jackets hanging on his coat rack and placing his boots back on, walking out the door to take a stroll through the dark barracks.

The place was completely silent, meaning either the Shepherds were still out partying or they were already asleep. Whatever the case Cecil quietly made his way to the main entrance and walked out into the courtyard, the cool night breeze wafting over him and through the door as he closed it. Looking over to the large castle next to the barracks, he looked to the ramparts on the largest tower, noticing that the door seemed to be open if his eyes weren't tricking him.

"_Well...I'm sure Ylisstol looks nice right now. Might as well see it from a front row seat."_ he smiled as he started walking towards the main gates.

Giving a quick nod to the guards at the gates, who saluted and opened them for him, Cecil walked unabated through the castle on his way up to the top of the tower. The climb only took him a few minutes, and as he reached the open door leading out, he saw a familiar blonde wearing green robes looking over the city as well.

Cecil chuckled as he walked through, gaining the woman's attention. She turned around, shocked that someone had snuck up on her, Cecil giving her a small smile.

"Can't sleep, Emm? I thought the party would've worn you out." he asked, a sigh escaping her lips as the start of her response.

"You would think, but all it did was rattle me up. Nothing but politics and questions, couldn't even fully enjoy a party with my family." she stated in a very informal tone.

"Heh, if Maribelle caught the Exalt talking like a normal person I'm pretty sure she'd faint on the spot." he remade, being rewarded with a very uncharacteristic punch to his arm from her.

"I can speak how I want, doesn't mean that decorum comes after one's own wants."

"Hey I'm not saying its bad, just refreshing. So, what's got you all riled up?"

"You first, I believe Chrom told you to get some sleep." she said with slight concern.

Cecil sighed, rubbing the back of his head before taking off his glove and holding his left hand in front of her, the brand still glowing. "It's whispering to me, singing in my ear a song I can't place, I wouldn't be able to get any sleep as it stands now."

Emmeryn grabbed his hand and examined the brand, rubbing her thumb over the mark as if it were raised out of his hand. Maybe it was a trick of the light around them, but Cecil could have sworn the brand on her forehead lit up if but just a moment.

"I...sometimes the same thing occurs with me. I think I hear Naga's voice echo in my head, specifically whenever I need guidance the most. Maybe...they're trying to talk to you, trying to tell you something that must be done or how to do it. Or it might just be echos of their blood resounding in your brand, but even with all our knowledge the full power of the dragons still elude us." Emmeryn stated as she let go of his hand, Cecil placing his glove back on. "Or perhaps it is the same thing I'm riled up about."

He raised a brow at her, causing her to sigh and continue on. "I tell you this because you're not as rash as my brother can be, and I expect you not to tell him if he doesn't figure it out himself. The reports I received said that the bandits were most likely paid to do what their doing..."

"I don't think Chrom would like where this is going…"

"He wouldn't, which is why I haven't told him. All the reports state that the bandits have a heavy Plegian accent, and they aren't taking any gold or expensive items from the villages, they're just burning them to the ground...or worse."

Cecil sighed heavily, shaking his head as the whispers grew louder for a moment before stopping completely, and he could feel the brand grow dark. "You think Gangrel is behind all of this?"

"...I wish it was not so, but he has gone quite mad in the last several years. It possible that in his madness he wants to start another war, and have us as the aggressors once again."

"Great, and here my mother thought we could avoid having me in a war." he joked, trying to lighten the mood. "Good thing we're heading out tomorrow, we'll take care of these bandits and then figure out our next move."

"It's a good thing to know you have your head on straight, I fear Chrom might have wanted to rally the army and march to the border."

"You know my mother, if I didn't try to have my head on straight I'd be on a week long lecture course from her and Richard." he grimaced, causing Emmeryn to laugh. "And he'd have restraint...he'd wait a week, then do that exact thing."

"It's good to see you have that much confidence in my brother. But it grows late, and with that all off my chest I think I can actually get some sleep. Pleasant dreams, Cecil. I'll see you all off in the morning if I can...or if your mother lets me."

"Right, night Emm." Cecil laughed with a quick smile, Emm returning it as she walked back through the door. "_I hope this doesn't break out into war, that's the last thing we need right now."_ he thought as he yawned, sleep finally trying to grasp it's claws into him. He shook his head to try and rid himself of it before head back to barracks, hitting his bed with a thump before quickly lulling off to sleep.

* * *

Cecil's peaceful sleep was interrupted the next morning as a heavy object, more specifically a person, landed on top of him.

"Get up already sleepy head!" a light red blur yelled as it compressed Cecil farther into his bed.

"Oof!" he grunted as the blur jumped off him just as quick as it had landed. "Cel, couldn't you just wake me up normally?"

"Where's the fun it that? Now come on and get ready, Mom wants to talk to you before you leave." Celene said as she skipped out of his room and closed the door.

Cecil sighed as he hopped up out of bed and over to his closet, grabbing his normal outfit and tossing it on as quickly as he could. It consisted of an extremely light, navy blue padded long sleeve turtleneck tunic, a light set of chainmail covering his upper torso, a long blue and black sleeveless jacket that was held shut by several straps held on by silver buttons, the shoulder's having wide black covers that drape down right above the elbow, light leather gloves, a large leather belt with a silver circle belt buckle wrapped around his waist to hold onto a scabbard, bracers to cover both of his forearms, black padded pants, and brown and black boots. Grabbing a long red and black cape his mother had stitched for him and attaching the gold chains and buttons, that were made to look like a dragon's head, to the right spots on the jacket to make sure it stayed put, he walked out the room and found Celene waiting for him outside.

"I still don't understand why I couldn't just wear this last night, I'd say it's nice enough for a party." Cecil sighed as Celene smiled at him.

"Hey you know how Maribelle is, I didn't really like my outfit either but I didn't want the lecture."

"Same, where's Mom?"

"She's over in the throne room talking to Emmeryn, let's go." she said cheerily as she walked off, Cecil following quietly as it seemed like most everyone was still asleep, except for Frederick who was sitting at one of the many tables in the main room of the barracks eating breakfast.

With a quick wave to him the two exited the barracks and down the path to the palace, passing past several patrols that saluted them as they past. As they passed the main gates, Celene turned around and started walking backwards up the stairs leading to the large palace doors and tossing her arms behind her back, keeping her eyes on Cecil with a big grin.

"Soooo…you seemed to have had a fun time with Cordelia last night. What happened between you two huh?"

Cecil scoffed, remembering how stupid he felt last night. "Nothing, I just thought I'd try to make her night somewhat enjoyable. She didn't seem to be enjoying herself at all before I got a chance to talk to her...that, and I was an idiot."

"The whole 'She has a crush on Chrom thing'? Yeah, I figured that might happen if she saw him with Sumia."

"Yeah I….wait, you knew about that!" Cecil sneered at his sister, who just giggled the look away. "Why didn't you tell me?"

"I thought you had taken that into account when you tried to plan everything out, apparently I thought too much of my big brother huh." she laughed out, getting a pout out of Cecil, who mumbled some complaints before hurrying his pace and started to pass her. As he did a sharp gust of wind blew past, causing his cape to wrap around Celene's face and covering her eyes. She started panicking, flailing her arms around wildly as she tried to take the next step, tripping over it and landing on her rear. She groaned as she flicked the cape off of her, sporting a large pout and blushing cheeks. The sight sent Cecil in hysterics, as he stopped and Celene stood up and dusted her dress off, a smile finally appeared on Cecil's lips.

"Apparently Forseti didn't like the joke, sis." he smiled as he continued past the last few steps, seeing the few guards standing in front of the doors snickering, having seen Celene's blunder. He gave them a small nod and they opened the door for the two, the pout still adorned on Celene's face causing them to start laughing again.

"Apologies Lady Celene, but it was funny." one of the guards said through the laugh. Celene huffed as she walked through, but a very small smile could be seen.

As they walked through and the guards closed the doors, they could already see their mother and Richard standing talking to Emmeryn near her throne.

Compared to the young Celes that had journeyed far from her old castle, she had seemingly aged slightly quicker that average. Her eyes always seemed to be tired, and a few small streaks of grey accompanied her still vibrant hair. Cecil always thought it was most likely the stress of the court life she constantly lived to keep them in the palace, apparently the Ylissian court was more stressful than the Valmeseian one from what he had heard. Richard on the other hand had aged quite well, a few wrinkles here and there but otherwise he looked mostly the same.

"Mother, Richard, Emmeryn, good morning." Cecil said happily as he walked up to the three. "I hope I'm not interrupting anything, mother."

"Not at all Cecil, we were just going over a few...minor details about current predicaments." she said with a sigh. "But that is no matter, I heard that you and Chrom are heading out to patrol the southern regions, so I wanted to see you before you left."

She walked over and opened her arms, Cecil walking into her embrace and returning it. "Please be careful, if what our scouts have told us turns out to be true then this could pertain to something much worse in the future." she said as she let go of him. "Of course you weren't supposed to know about that little detail, isn't that right Emmeryn."

"Oh...yes of course. I..shared that information with complete confidence in his ability to keep it quiet, of course." Emmeryn smiled sheepishly. His mother was the only person Cecil knew that could actually rempremend the Exalt and get away with it, a feat more surprising than many gave her credit for.

"Now then, onto another reason. I heard from a little bird..." Celes said as she glanced over to Emmeryn. "That your brand was...singing to you. Is that true?"

"Yeah, it started a few weeks ago, but it was really loud last night as I was trying to go to bed. It's in a language I can't recognize, but it didn't sound like any of the old chants you taught me."

"Then I fear things might not be in our favor anymore. Do we have _any _reports from Valm, Richard?"

"None have come through milady, sadly trade between the continents have slowed down in recent years, even with Orvil making constant trips, so the chances of anything making it over here in timely manner has been thrown out the window." Richard replied with a frown.

"Damn it all. As far as we know Walhart might have finally set his sights on the other countries."

"Wait, what does my brand singing to me have to do with Walhart?" Cecil asked, concern surrounding his face. Celes frowned before answering, trying to make sense of it all herself.

"The souls of Lord Duma and Lady Mila rest at the Mila tree, their essence and blood causing the two trees to grow and intertwine each other. Our family may have their Holy Blood coursing through us, but you are the first member to have a brand in several millennia. My thought is...it is possible that the whispers you are hearing are in fact the whispers of the Mila Tree itself, the souls of the two old gods reaching out to you as a warning." she replied.

"Then let's hope that isn't the case." Cecil smiled. "Last thing we need is that jackass trying to march over here."

"Right, I'm sure everything's alright, mom." Celene smiled wide, causing her mother to smile as well.

"Yes, let us hope. In the meantime, Cecil, there is something I want you to have, just in case." Celes said as she motioned to Richard, who walked forwards and with both hands held out a longsword sheathed in a beautifully decorated leather scabbard. "This is Goldbrand, your inheritance if you will. Saint-King Alm used this sword to lead his army to victory, and now it is yours Cecil. Only members of our family can use it, as it is magically enhanced to only let those of our royal blood to hold it properly. To others it would be like holding an iron anchor. Go ahead, hold it in your hands."

Cecil grabbed hold of the gorgeous golden handle of the blade and drew it out of the scabbard. It fit perfectly in his hands, the weight perfectly attuned to what he had practiced with. The bright red ruby in the center of the straight crossguard lit up as he held it, as if saying he was worthy of it. He swung it a few times, before graciously grabbing the scabbard from Richard and hooking it onto his belt.

"Thank you, mother. I promise I'll keep this safe."

"I would hope so, it is one of two family treasures we have left." Celes smiled as another guest walked up.

"I didn't know we were having a meeting." Chrom smiled as he walked up.

"Just a quick talk before you and my son leave today, Chrom." Celes nodded to him. "I do hope you'll keep him safe."

"Of course, he watches my back and I'll watch his."

"Ha, that's the basic premises, we both stab people with swords. Oh, speaking of which, catch." Cecil smiled as he tossed his sword to Chrom. Chrom caught it easily, but found himself being thrown off balance from the sudden shift in its weight and falling to the floor as he did, getting a laugh out of Celene, Cecil, and even Emmeryn.

"What in blazes, it's like trying to hold up a wagon." Chrom complained as he had to use both hands, one on the hilt and one on the blade, to lift it up.

"So the enchantment does still work." Cecil laughed as he walked over and grabbed the sword from Chrom, giving it a quick twirl before sheathing it. Chrom deadpanned at him before looking at Celes.

"Nevermind, he's on his own." he said with a smirk and gaining a light punch on the arm from Cecil. "Anyways everyone is a the gates and we're all set to go, you ready Cecil?"

"Yep, let's get going. See you all later." Cecil smiled as he and Chrom walked towards the large entrance doors.

"Be safe big brother!" Celene called out as he waved back to her.

"Always am."

"He's grown up so quick...he reminds me of Elm." Richard said with a smile on his face.

"Yes, indeed he does. Now then, we have other matters to discuss." Celes said as she turned and faced Emmeryn. "What are we going to do if Plegia is the one causing all of this."

* * *

"You know, when you said we were heading out to hunt bandits...I thought there'd actually be bandits." Lissa pondered as she, Chrom, Cecil, and Frederick were walking through the fields just a mile outside Southtown.

They'd already been traveling for almost two weeks now and had not even the smallest glimpse of a camp anywhere in the area, which was more frustrating then they'd let on. Sully had been sent back to Ylisstol to report what they had found, or lack thereof...so they had continued their merry way through the southern reaches of the halidom.

"No kidding, the break from palace life is nice but I was expecting something..more, from all of this." Cecil sighed as he gestured to the fields around him.

"Well I'd rather have this instead of just randomly waking into a bandit camp that outnumber us three to one." Chrom commented with a shrug.

"And I'd wish you'd hurry and spill the beans with Sumia but gods know I'm going to have to drag you by the ear before that happens." Cecil jested as he leaned his arm over Chrom's shoulder, Chrom's face going beat red as Lissa started laughing, the comment even getting a smile out of Frederick. And yes, he was playing both sides of the field to get this damn flutter dance the two had been doing for the last several years to finally end, he swore to the high heavens he was not wearing one of those rabbit outfits...even though the royal tailors made really high quality ones with capes and everything. Maybe he'd wear one, but it would be a battle getting him in one.

"I have no idea what you're talking about." Chrom sputtered as his face turned back to it's normal shade.

"'Course you don't, no matter. Just make sure that outfit is ready for next year's Spring Festival."

"I would assure you to do the same, don't think I haven't noticed you looking at Cordelia when you get the chance. Not to mention that you spent all night with her on Emm's birthday." Chrom grinned as he trapped Cecil in a corner, Cecil's eyes going wide before looking in the opposite direction of Chrom

"That...that was something else, nothing to look into or speculate on." Cecil tried to hurriedly escape the ensuing questioning he swore Lissa would start. "Getting off the matter, how much longer are we going to keep this up? I'm thinking the bandits moved on by now if we haven't seen them."

"We'll stay out for a few more days then head back, if we're lucky we might find something." Chrom replied as Lissa ran out in front of them around ten feet.

"Like what? All i can see from where we're at is grass, unless there's an ambu..ahh!" Lissa yelled as she tripped over backwards and landed on her rear, causing Cecil to snicker at her. "What's the big idea..oh gods, guys!"

With her shout the group jogged forwards to see where she was looking, finding a man laying on the ground unconscious. His snow white hair made for a great contrast to the dark purple and gold coat he wore, and thankfully from the grunt he made they were guessing he was still alive.

Lissa stood up and dusted herself off before moving over to stand next to Chrom, looking down at the man.

"What are we going to do?"

"I don't know, what do you suggest?"

"Well we can't just leave him here" Lissa sighed as she noticed the man open his eyes. "Oh! You're awake, Hey there."

"There's better places to take a nap you know, here, let me help you up." Chrom smiled as he reached his hand out to the man, who groaned as he grabbed it and was quickly brought up to hs feet.

"Oof, thanks Chrom." the man smiled as he dusted himself off.

"Geez, everyone knows who you are Chrom, even random people in fields." Cecil jested before looking at the man, he sweared to Naga he seemed familiar but couldn't put wrap his head around why. "You alright?"

"Um...no actually." the man said as he started to look around. "I can't seem to remember...anything actually, how odd. I can't even remember my name."

"Oh oh! I've heard of this, it's called amnesia." Lissa perked up.

"It's called a load of wyvern dung, milady. You're telling me you know milords name but not your own?" Frederick piped up with a glare aimed right at the man.

"Oy, no need to scare the man to death Frederick." Cecil sighed. "Ignore Frederick the Wary, you sure you can't remember anything?"

"No, I promise. I can't even remember where I'm at." the man said sadly.

"Well we can fix that. You're in the halidom of Ylisse, specifically in the southern areas near a small town named Southtown." Chrom answered with a smile, the man making a snarky retort.

"Well that's a boring name, is there a North and West town too?" he said with a chuckle, Cecil, Chrom, and Lissa doing the same.

"I like him. The names Cecil, by the way." Cecil smiled as he held out his hand to the man.

"I'd give you my own if I could remember it." the man smiled as he grabbed Cecil's hand, immediately feeling slightly faint with a splitting headache hitting him. He backed away a step, holding his head in his hands as it took several seconds for the pain to subside. When he looked up he saw the group, minus Frederick, looking at him with faces filled with concern.

"You okay?" Chrom asked.

"Yeah, yeah I'm fine...Robin...my name is Robin, I just remembered that." Robin smiled at them.

"Hey look at that, already some improvement." Cecil laughed loudly.

"God's you're loud, can't a woman get some sleep." a groan to the left of Cecil made him jump, looking around to find the source of the voice. Surprisingly finding what seemed to be another purple lump hidden in the grass, Cecil walked over on top of it and looked down while the others over at him.

The purple lump turned out to be a young woman who greatly resembled Robin. The white hair, the purple coat, though the coat was accented with silver instead of gold, the facial features...if Cecil was a betting man, and he was, he'd say she and Robin were most likely related, twins most likely.

"Well I'd say no when said woman is laying in the middle of a field." Cecil chuckled as the woman opened her eyes.

"Ah shut up and help me up, Cecil." the woman said as she held out her hand. Cecil tilted his head in confusion, first Robin knew Chrom's name but nothing about himself, now this woman knows his name and he was going to guess that she couldn't remember anything either.

"Right, what's your name?" Cecil asked as he reached out and grabbed her hand. As she got up he noticed her squinting in pain, rubbing her forehead.

"R..Raven…" she squinted in confusion. "...I think."

"_Why the hell does that name sound familiar to me? Whatever, not the point." _Cecil thought as he brushed off a bit of dirt off of her shoulder. "Can you remember anything else?"

"No...besides the name Robin." Raven frowned.

"Hey, I think you're talking about me." Robin finally spoke up as he walked over to her. "My name's Robin, it's a pleasure to meet you...again...or something."

"Well at least you two aren't alone in the world, I think you two might be related." Chrom said as Frederick gave a weary glare at the two.

"Maybe." the two of them said at the same time, Frederick finally speaking his mind.

"I don't trust them, milord. Not one, but two people saying they have amnesia, and with only a few feet separating the two? As far as we know they're lying to get away with a crime or some such." he stated with a glare at the two of them, both wincing from the acquisition.

"Hold on Frederick, that's a valid point but even a bandit wouldn't think that saying two people have amnesia one after another would be a good idea. The chance of that happening is so low I honestly can't help but think they're telling the truth." Chrom said with a small smile. "Now that's not saying I trust them, but we can at least take them with us back to Southtown and see if anyone there knows them."

Frederick sighed as he looked at his lord, knowing he wasn't going to get through to him. "Fine, let's us head back to Southtown then."

"Do we get a say in this?" Raven asked as she sunk to a hip.

"Sadly no, don't get me wrong I want to trust you, both of you, but these circumstances are a bit on the weird side is it not." Chrom smiled as he turned around and started walking, the other's following with Frederick coming up behind Robin and Raven, being stoic as always.

"What will you do with us then, are are we to be your prisoners?" Robin asked a minute later.

"Ha, no no, nothing that severe. Once we know you're of no threat to us or the halidom you'll be free to go. Oh, and we never formally introduced ourselves did we." Chrom frowned. "Well as Robin knows my name is Chrom, the knight standing behind you is Frederick the Wary.."

"I have asked you to stop using that moniker, milord."

"And the delicate one standing next to me is my sister, Lissa."

"Hey! I am not delicate!" Lissa jumped in a angry manner. "Whatever, ignore my blockhead of a brother. Oh, and that's Cecil, closest thing we've got to a non-related brother...but I guess you already knew that." she gestured to Cecil, who smiled at them.

"Either way it's a good thing we found you instead of some guards, or worse yet brigands, Naga knows the Shepherds are a better sight to wake up to." Cecil joked, gaining a look of confusion from the twins.

"Shepherds? You tend to sheep in full armor?" Raven asked.

"Yeah, something like that. It can be a dangerous job sometimes. Ask Frederick?" Chrom laughed.

"Indeed, we've had many brigands attack us on our journeys, which is why I must be ever watching to make sure nothing happens to my charges."

"Very respectable Frederick, I understand why you'd be wary of us then." Robin nodded.

"At least someone understands." Frederick sighed.

"Now then, let's get to…" Chrom started before being interrupted by Lissa screaming.

"Oh gods! Chrom, the town!" Lissa yelled, pointing at the town they were nearing. Several building were ablaze and covered in smoke, and you could barely hear the screams of the inhabitants along with laughter.

"Naga damn them all, I think we found out bandits Chrom." Cecil groaned as he unsheathed his sword.

"Sadly I must agree. Cecil take the left side of town, I'll take the right. Frederick, you stay with Lissa and try to find any of injured civilians." Chrom said as he grabbed Falchion.

"What about these two, milrod?" Frederick asked as he gestured to the twins.

"Unless they're on fire or dying they're second priority...no offense you two." Chrom said as he took off, Frederick and Lissa riding along on his horse towards the town.

"Wait, where'd that horse come from?" Robin asked.

"Don't question it, he's trained that horse in more than you can imagine. Anyways you two stay here, we'll deal with this." Cecil smiled as he ran off to join the others.

Both Robin and Raven looked towards the town with frowns, before looking at each other.

"You thinking the same thing?" Robin asked.

"Yeah, I'm starting to think we are twins." Raven smiled as she took off towards the town, Robin following. "I'll go after Cecil, see if you can find Lissa or Chrom."

"Got it." Robin smiled, feeling a heavy weight on his side, looking down to see a sword hanging from his hip. "You have a sword?" he yelled out to Raven.

"Yep, I'm armed. Now hurry up or we'll miss all the acton." she smiled as she took off in the direction Cecil had ran.

"I hope we both know how to fight or this is going to be awkward." Robin sighed as he started to pick up the pace.


	3. Path to Despair

**Damn, didn't think I'd see so many favorites and follows for something with only two chapters. Thanks for the support everyone, hopefully I can keep writing chapters you like. Once again, any reviews are welcome. **

**That said, onwards!**

* * *

Twack! 'Crack'

"Damn it all." Cordelia sighed as another lance snapped in half in her hands.

She was currently at one of the several training grounds around the Knight's barracks practicing to get her mind off of...everything. She'd been having a rough few weeks to say the least.

She sighed as she grabbed the snapped end of the lance and threw it over with several others that had broken in the last hour, grabbing another one from the wall and returning to her forms.

First was that horrendous meltdown she had at the Exalt's birthday. Gods she was so embarrassed just knowing Cecil had seen her in that state, she knew the reaction was stupidly overblown and her mind just raced with thousands of negative thoughts at once. Thank Naga Cecil was willing to help her through the night, if it wasn't for him she'd probably been the laughing stock of the party, she would have to repay him for his kindness when she could. Thinking on that night didn't help her mood. Then there was Sumia, having become more and more lovestruck since the party, much to Cordelia's annoyance. She'd caught Sumia several times giggling to herself while mutilating several poor flowers in those flower fortunes of her, repeating 'He loves me, he loves me not'. This, mind the fact of her own crush on said Prince, had become increasingly annoying as Sumia was constantly doing them _while _they were meeting for lunch, sometimes randomly stopping in the middle of a sentence to do a fortune. While she loved Sumia like a sister, it didn't help her mood. Then there was the, all of a sudden, overload of paper and busy work that kept getting dropped on her last second by her fellow knights, seeming in reckless abandon and smiles as they dropped the papers off in her room before scurrying off to who knows where. She'd barely even been able to catch up on her reading thanks to it. That didn't help her mood one bit. And then there was all the letters from her parents talking about suitors, one after another the letters just never fucking stopped. All to random and snobby nobles from Northern or Southern Ylisse, no one she knew, no one she cared an inch about. She had taken to just throwing any letters containing anything about nobles in the trash and lighting it on fire with what little fire magic training she had. Naga knows her parents weren't helping her mood. One. fucking. Bi…

CRACK!

Not only did her lance break in half, the end with the spear tip was flung over and impacted into the wall enough that the wooden handle just wiggled as it couldn't fall to the floor. She also noticed that the training dummy in front of her was also missing a head, one which fell from above behind the dummy a moment later.

"Naga damn it all." she sighed as she walked over to the front half of the spear and tried to pry it out of the wall. Being successful after a few tugs, she flung it over with the other broken ones before deciding to call it quits, that was the sixth spear she'd broken today.

"Letting out a little aggression, Cordelia?"

The voice made Cordelia jump out of her skin, having not expected to have anyone to have witnessed her training. Looking around she saw Sumia standing at the entrance, a nervous smile adorning her face.

"Sorry, I didn't mean to scare you."

"It's fine, Sumia. Is there something you need?" Cordelia sighed as she walked over and picked up all the broken lances and placing them further off to the side to be disposed of later.

"Oh, uh...no. I just wanted to see if you wanted to grab lunch, the cafe down the street is having a special."

"Is it lunch already? I haven't been paying attention apparently." Cordelia frowned as she walked over to Sumia, before shaking her head and putting on a smile. "Why not, I could use a bite to eat."

"Oh good!" Sumia smiled brightly as she grabbed Cordelia's arm and started dragging her off. "There's a lot of stuff I want to talk about to, it's been really boring without the Captain or Cecil around."

Cordelia snorted with laughter before she corrected her footing and quickly walked alongside Sumia, getting her to let go of her arm. "I'm sure those two are just fine, they're probably having a fair bit of fun right now if I had to guess."

* * *

"Fall to judgement!" Cecil yelled as he impaled his sword in the back of a raider that was looming over a young woman, her hair bunched up in his fist. The raider sputtered as he started to fall forwards towards the woman, the life quickly fading from his eyes. Cecil reached forwards and grabbed the brand new corpse's shoulder before it fell on her, flinging it off to the side and dislodging his sword from it's chest in the process.

Thankfully that had been one of two bandits in the small alleyway Cecil found himself in, the other he had killed quietly before pouncing on the other. He looked back to the entrance to make sure another bandit had heard his yell, admittedly he shouldn't have yelled but he found it strangely fitting for what he was thinking the bandit might have done.

"You alright?" he asked to the woman as he turned back to her.

"I...I'm fine...thank you so much." the woman quietly sobbed, Cecil reaching down and helping her stand up.

"Good, is there a place that you'd feel safe at around here?"

"My house is just down the alley, that's the closest place I would...watch out!" she screamed as she jumped back, causing Cecil to instinctually spin around and hold his sword in front of him, thankfully being just in time to stop an axe chopping into his chest.

"_Where the hell did this guy come from!?" _Cecil groaned to himself under the weight of the bandits strength.

"Well what do we 'ave 'ere? A lil' noby from uptown eh?" the bandit grinned in a broken accent. Honestly Cecil couldn't tell if the bandit couldn't decide on an accent or if it _was _his accent. "I'm sure the boss would 'ive me a good price for you noggin? How 'bout you just let me…"

The bandit never finished his sentence as words shouted from the end of the alley.

"Fire!"

The bandits head was engulfed in flames and his skin started to burn away. Dropping his axe and clawing at his skull, Cecil was given enough time to back away slightly and give a quick slice at the man neck, cleanly cleaving the man's head off his shoulders. Cecil sighed as the head hit the pavement and rolled away, the body hitting the ground with a thump. Looking over to the alley entrance, he was surprised to find Raven grinning at him.

"Guess I got here just on time 'eh?" Raven smiled as she walked over to Cecil and the woman, a fire tome in her right hand.

"Eh, I could've handled it." Cecil grinned. "Thanks for the help Raven, so you can use magic?"

"Apparently, it kinda just came to me when I opened the tome. I've got a sword too." Raven explained as she moved her hip, showing off a worn down bronze sword.

"Surprised we didn't see that when we found you." he tilted his head before looking around. "Where's Robin?"

"Off to chase after Chrom, if he's anything like you I'm sure he'll need the help." Raven smirked.

"Ha, probably. Well come on, let's get the miss here to a safe place and we'll try to meet up with the others, it doesn't seem to be a large raiding force anyways." Cecil smiled as he turned and started down the alleyway, the woman and Raven following after him.

On the other side of town, just as Raven suspected, Chrom had found himself surrounded by three bandits, all of whom had been keeping him on the defensive.

Chrom ducked backwards as one of the bandits swung at him with a rusty sword, and barely dodged a swing from the bandit to the right of him. Flinging Falchion to the side to block another swing from the first bandit, Chrom was able to roll out of the middle of the small triangle the bandits had blocked him in so that the three were behind him. Spinning around to face them, he hopelessly tried to talk them down.

"Drop your weapons and your lives will be spared bandits!"

The three men stopped for a second, staring at him like he was stupid before bursting into laughter.

"You hear this one boys? I think he's a little loose in the head." one of them laughed.

Chrom sighed as he raised Falchion, "I warned you."

In an instant Chrom had ran up to the bandit had laughed and before he could react stabbed Falchion into his chest. The bandit garbled as Chrom yanked his sword back out of the man's chest before stepping to the left to engage the second bandit. His surprise attack going better than he'd expected, the bandit could barely block the attack as he was still recovering from his friends quick death. Chrom pushed the bandit back with a flurry of attacks, momentarily forgetting the third bandit that had recovered quicker than his friend.

The bandit charged towards Chrom before a blur of purple off to his side collided into him and he felt a sharp pain in his left arm. Enraged at the lost opportunity, the bandit swung at the blur with the same arm, only to find the bleeding stump at his elbow. He screamed as the pain finally registered before it was cut short, his world going black in an instant.

"Keep your eyes open, Chrom. I'm pretty sure you don't want to die by a backstab." Robin sighed as he flicked the blood off of his sword, the bandits body and separated head hitting the ground. The second bandit, having witnessed the death, dropped his guard just enough to allow Chrom a fatal strike. Checking that no other bandits were around, Chrom looked back to Robin with a small smile.

"I, uh...guess it slipped my mind. I'm used to two on ones." Chrom chuckled lightly as he rubbed the back of his head.

Robin just sighed while shaking his head before snickering. "Well at least you kept your head on your shoulders while being outnumbered."

"I'd like to think I've trained enough to at least survive a battle." Chrom smiled widely. "And good to see you know how to handle a sword, or at least basic control, otherwise that could've ended up badly for everyone. Thanks, Robin."

"No thanks necessary, now any idea where the leader of this sorry band is?" Robin said as he put his hand up and cupped his chin, looking around.

"If what I heard from these bandits is correct, he's most likely at the church near the shopping district."

"Then let's head that way and see if we can find the others, I think Raven and Cecil were heading in that direction anyways."

"Good, I can see who has the bigger head count then." Chrom laughed as the two of them started jogging in the direction of the church, which could thankfully be seen a few blocks away from where they were.

"You two have a bet on who has the bigger kill count? That's kinda morbid." Robin commented.

"Maybe, but all the Shepherds do it. It's a good way to distract us on the gruesome job, and whoever has the lowest headcount has to buy drinks when we get back to Ylisse."

"I...actually that doesn't sound that bad."

"And that's why we do it, always fun seeing who has the lowest headcount and the face they make when they find out." Chrom laughed.

* * *

"I think I see Chrom and Robin...that or flowers like to walk around in this world." Raven smiled as she and Cecil ran out into the town square, a medium sized open area filled with vendor stalls and blocked off by a river to the north and east. They could see the church that the woman had told them about to the north, and they could hear the laughter they thought belonged to the bandit leader coming from that direction.

"Maybe in the outrealms, but I don't think that type of plant is here." Cecil laughed as they ran ahead, dispatching an enemy mage and fighter that weren't looking in their direction before reaching the middle of the square, waving over to Chrom and Robin as they did.

"Hey, you guys both alright?" Cecil called out as the two ran over to them.

"Few scrapes and bruises but no worse for wear. Have you seen Frederick?" Chrom asked as he breathed heavily, tired from the sprint.

"He and Lissa were headed to the other side of town to make sure everyone they could find where alright, so It's just us four here for this. Thankfully I think that knight and mage are the only bandits left besides their boss." Cecil pointed towards two bandits that were standing guard on the bridge to the church...who were also pointing at them and shouting.

"Hurry up you louts, they're over there!" the group heard the knight scream out, several bandits running out of the church and running towards them across the bridge, consisting of three swordsman, two axemen, and two mages.

"Me and my big mouth." Cecil groaned as they all got into a readied stance.

"In hindsight, it was a bad idea for us to just stand here in the open." Robin commented as he used his tome and tossed a thunder spell at one of the charging bandits as they broke away from each other. It barely hit the bandit's left arm, causing him to jitter from the shock before continuing towards the group. "Chrom, take care of those swordsmen, Cecil, get rid of the axemen!"

"We'll take care of the mages!" Raven called out as she cast a fire spell at one of the mages, knocking his hat off.

"Got it!" the two called out as they charged towards their respective targets.

The bandits were quickly decimated as the lords and tacticians barreled through them, showing that while the bandits were ruthless, they were utterly weak and untrained to anything more than basic combat. Cleaning their swords and tearing out any, now useless, tome pages, the group strolled past the bodies of the knight and mage on the bridge, having been felled by Robin and Raven's spells during the scuffle.

"I thought that was going to be harder." Cecil snorted as they walked towards the church, seeing the bandit leader seethingly glaring at them as they walked near. Obviously someone wasn't too happy their entire band had been killed so easily.

"Were you hoping they would be?" Raven asked as she having a condescending smile and wave over to the bandit leader.

"Kinda...when I think of a group of bandits wreaking havoc on towns and no one being able to stop them I _thought_ they'd at least last a few minutes at most. Disappointing, honestly." Cecil raised his voice just enough that the leader might hear him, and seeing as said leader's face was as red as Cordelia's hair, he was pretty sure he did.

"You wanna say that to my face you pompous bitch!?" the leader shouted out angrily.

"Oof, such an insult." Cecil mocked with a faint hand gesture over his chest as if he'd been hit by an arrow. "I call this one Chrom, you got the last one anyways."

"Technically Corrin got the last hit on that 'warthog'." Chrom said as he sunk to a hip.

"I suppose...I call this one anyways." Cecil smiled at him as he started walking towards the bandit leader.

"Warthogs?" Robin asked.

"Ha, I'll tell you that story later, we've got a show to watch." Chrom chuckled as he tilted his head towards Cecil, who had reached the seething bandit.

"Alright you sorry git, you ready to rumble?" the leader questioned with a smirk, thinking this was going to go his way in the end.

"Sure, why not. Maybe you'll actually get a sweat out of me." Cecil jabbed, trying to piss the leader off.

"Oh there'll be more than sweat coming out of you." the leader said as he charged at Cecil, axe raised high and ready to strike.

Cecil lazily blocked the strike as the leader chipped down at him, quickly finding out he shouldn't have been so cocky. The chop pushed him down towards the ground, the leaders muscular build not being just for show apparently, and Cecil had to fling himself backwards in a roll to get away from the bandit.

"_Right, remind myself never to get cocky on a one on one._" he thought to himself as he readied his sword to deflect another blow the bandit aimed at him. Continuing to backup as he parried each of the bandits blows, he was able to find a few opening to get several small cuts on the brutes chest, though they seemingly didn't phase him as the he kept on coming. "_Nevermind, remind myself to never get cocky ever again!"_

Seeing Cecil struggle against the bandit, Raven grabbed her tome and started to cast a spell before Chrom held his arm in front of her, blocking her sight of the battle.

"Don't go and spoil it, we all have battles we must fight on our own. How are we supposed to learn otherwise."

"Liar, you're just having fun watching him being beat down for being cocky." Raven gave Chrom a soft glare, who in turn looked away from her with a small whistle, being rewarded with a punch in the arm from her. As Chrom rubbed his arm from the rough punch, they all heard the clanging of a sword hitting the ground and quickly looked back to Cecil and the bandit.

Cecil had been disarmed while trying to block a powerful strike from the bandit, his sword being sent skidding across the ground several feet away. The bandit looked pleased as he walked towards Cecil, smacking the back of his axe against his hand.

"Well well well, looks like the blue blood ain't in a good spot." the bandit said as he charged Cecil.

"_Oh this is going to hurt, I hope Lissa gets here soon."_ Cecil thought as he barely dodged out of the way of the way from the charging bandit. He quickly spun around while extending his left arm, words chanting from his lips as sparks surrounded his arm and he pointed towards the bandits back.

"Thoron!"

A sharp crack of thunder surrounded the area as a large bolt of lightning exploded from Cecil's hand and crashed into the bandit, charring his back and chest as the bolt shot through him. The bandit coughed and sputtered, his heart being pierced by the bolt, before falling forwards onto the ground dead. Cecil sighed as he slumped down to the ground, sitting back and propping himself upright with his arms. His arm felt tingly and knowing anything he had burns all the way down his arm, he'd have to have Lissa heal him up before they headed back towards Ylisse. He knew he could use the simple anima spells without any major damage to him besides exhaustion, but any higher tier spells could hold consequences. But, in the end he was justified in using it, he was without a sword and with no other way to defend himself, he needed to make sure the bandit was killed on the first hit.

"How's the arm?" Chrom asked as he walked over to Cecil, both Robin and Raven following with curious looks on their faces.

"Probably burned, doesn't feel horrible but it's noticeable." Cecil replied and hoisted himself up to his feet.

"Good, better than what happened a few months ago." Chrom smiled.

"Hey in the end I think Maribelle hurt me more than the spell did with how many times she hit me with her umbrella." Cecil laughed as Robin spoke up with a question.

"You can use spells without a tome?"

Cecil looked over to him with a smile, "Being honest everyone with enough practice can, but with tomes being an easier form of using magic it's become a lost art nowadays. My family is one of the few that I know that continue the practice, but we still use tomes when we can instead."

"Sounds like something I'd want to know about, think you can teach me?" Raven asked with a large smile.

"We can try later if you'd like, but it's going to hurt. Speaking of which, you two did a great job at handling things during the battle." he complemented.

"He's right, even with how quickly everything went you showed great control over what was going on. And saving my skin when I wasn't paying attention gives a few extra points." Chrom smiled. "You know...how'd you two feel about joining the Shepherds?"

Both Robin and Raven were shocked, with Robin getting out of his stupor first to speak for both of them.

"You want us to join you? You've only known us for less than two hours, how can you trust us enough to even offer that?" Robin asked exasperatedly.

"Besides the fact that you both risked your lives to keep Cecil and I alive?" Chrom asked with a raised eyebrow. "You've fought to keep the people of this town, and in hindsight the citizens of Ylisse, safe and sound from a gang of bandits that have been burning villages for the last several weeks. If _that_ can't earn some trust out of me then nothing will...that and I've been told I'm an excellent judge of character." he smiled, getting a snicker out of Cecil.

"At this point I wouldn't try and argue with him, you won't get anywhere. Besides, we can try and help you get your memory back while you're with us. And as it stands the Shepherds are in need of a tactician, and you two showed great control of the battlefield back there, having you two with us would be a great help." Cecil laughed, causing Robin to sigh.

"I can't agree with the sentiment…" Robin said as he looked over to Raven, who gave him a slight shrug. "I guess it wouldn't be the worse thing to happen to us." he gave a small smile with a shake of his head.

"He means we accept." Raven giggled as she lightly punched Robin in the arm. "Though I don't think Frederick will be happy with your decision." she commented as Chrom winced.

"Oof, didn't think about that one did you big guy." Cecil chuckled as the sounds of a horse trotting across stone streets came near them. "Hey look, now you can tell him." he said as he walked over and retrieved his sword.

The group turned to where the sounds was coming from, seeing Frederick riding up to them with Lissa sitting behind him smiling.

"Milord, we've found and taken care of any citizens that were injured in the attack." Frederick said as Lissa hopped off his horse.

"Yep, thankfully there weren't many injured. How'd things go over here?" Lissa asked.

"Fine, we've taken care of all the bandits and Cecil took out their leader." Chrom replied as Cecil walked back to the group. "Speaking of which, Cecil hurt his arm using a spell, mind taking a look?"

"No problem!" Lissa smiled as she hopped over to Cecil. "Let's take a look…" she said as she held her staff up to his arm, it starting to glow with healing energy. "Well it doesn't look too bad, a few slight burns but nothing serious. Let's take care of that." she smiled as the glow around the staff grew stronger, and light green light covering Cecil as the tingling in his arm disappeared.

Cecil moved his arm and smiled, not feeling any pain from the arm. "Thanks Lissa."

"No prob Cecil." Lissa smiled as they looked over and saw Chrom leading Frederick off to side and started talking to him, Frederick quickly slumping and bring a hand up to his face. Lissa giggled as she looked back to Cecil. "Did he ask these two to join the Shepherds?"

"Right on the money." Cecil smiled as the twins couldn't help but snicker at the fact that Frederick seemingly deflated as Chrom obviously told him his decision. "Don't worry about Frederick you two, he's suspicious cause he has to be. He'll come around eventually."

"I'd hope so, it'd be hard to fight with you all if he's constantly trailing us." Raven smiled as some of the citizens started coming out of their homes. Cecil noticed this and called out around the area.

"Don't worry everyone, the bandits have been taken cared of so you're all safe for the time being!"

A collective cheer rang out around them as all the citizens came out and headed for the group, an elderly man leading the herd while several of the men went out to collect the bandits' corpses for burial.

"Thank Naga for your help Sir Cecil, I don't want to think what might have happened if you and your friends weren't here." the elder said as he walked up to the group, Chrom coming back over with a stressed Frederick.

"No thanks needed sir, we do this for a living." Cecil grinned. "Do you need any help taking care of the bodies?"

"No no, we can take care of that. But we have to thank you for saving our town, we were thinking of planning a feast to celebrate." the elder said with a smile, causing Lissa to smile brightly.

"Sweet, only dark meat for me, cooked medium…" Lissa started to rant off.

"We're grateful for the gesture, but we must make our way back to Ylisstol at once good sir." Frederick said with a stoic smile.

"WHAT! We can't stay? But I'm starving." Lissa complained loudly.

"We'll have to grab something when we make camp Lissa." Chrom laughed lightly. "Let's make our way home."

"Aww...fine." Lissa sighed as the group waved goodbye to the villagers and started their way to back to Ylisstol.

As they walked through the main gate to the northern part of Southtown, Frederick spoke up with a concern.

"Milord, did you happen to notice that those bandits spoke with a Plegian accent?"

"Yes, I did. We have bandits and cutthroats to the west of here, but of note none that we've faced sounded like they were from Plegia. I fear this means Gangrel might be trying to start up another war." Chrom sighed.

"Emmeryn thought so as well, so you're not alone in the fear." Cecil commented as Chrom looked at him. "Before you ask, she wanted to make sure the reports were correct before assuming anything."

"Emm's always liked keeping her secrets...I blame your mother." Chrom smiled as Raven spoke up.

"Can I ask what Plegia is?"

"Plegia is our western neighbor, a harsh place to live being entirely honest. We...Ylisse was in a war with them many years ago, and it didn't end well for either of us. Since then we've been on very shaky terms, and their King, Gangrel, has been seemingly going mad more and more as the years pass. We've had reports of raids from Plegian troops on the border realms, most likely trying to instigate another war, but we've never had them so far into the country."

"Yeah, and we dropped the numbers in the army after the last war, so we don't have a lot of troops to protect all the towns and villages so it's the citizens that are suffering because of it nowadays...but that's why Chrom started the Shepherds, so we can protect as many people as we can." Lissa said with a bit of pride.

"A noble goal to say the least...I suppose I'm proud that you'd be willing to have us join." Robin commented.

"Well let's hope you live up to the pressure, we got a lot of people to keep safe." Chrom smiled. "Now let's keep the pace up, we can be halfway to Ylisstol by nightfall if we hurry.

* * *

A horrible roar sounded from outside the ruined temple, a large group of young men and women running towards the inner sanctum, hoping their last ditch effort would come to fruition.

"Hurry up, we gotta get out of here!" a rough young man with orange hair yelled out from the middle of the group.

"No kidding Brady, not like we got a giant damned dragon chasing us!" one of the women shouted out as they rounded a corner into the main sanctum.

"Not to be the one to get in the middle of things, but we've got better things to do that yell." another young man yelled as they ran towards the other end of the room.

"He's right, everyone get ready!" a young woman with cobalt blue hair shouted out. "Lady Naga, can we do this?"

A spectral voice filled their minds as the spectral apparition of Naga appeared next to a large circular gate at the end of the room.

"Yes, this is our best chance to change fate. Please, save this world from it's untimely destruction children." Naga stated as she waved her hand, the gate opening into a glowing blue spiral of light.

"We'll try Lady Naga, but we've got to get there first. Everyone through the portal, if we get separated we try and meet up, but just stay alive." a young woman with light red hair in twintails yelled out as the group started to jump through the portal, only leaving the blue haired woman and herself in the room. "Come on Lucina, we've got to go."

"I know..." Lucina nodded as she looked back, seeing a large group of pale humanoids running into the room after them. She felt her arm getting grabbed as she was dragged towards the portal.

"Snap out of it!" the red haired woman yelled as Lucina shook her head and pried her self from the women's grip and they both started running towards the portal.

"Sorry Severa, I…"

"Don't worry about it, gawds you always are the sentimental type." Severa smiled. "We have to make sure this doesn't happen...that our families survive. "

"Of course. See you on the other side Severa." Lucina smiled as they both jumped through the portal, Naga quickly closing it as the humanoids were about to jump through, a few barely making it through as she did.

"Good luck children, the future is counting on you all." Naga said as her form disappeared.

* * *

"Right, I think we should call it here for the night. We can finish making our way home in the morning." Chrom stated as they found themselves in the middle of a large forest several miles away from Ylisstol. Sighing in relief, the group walked off the road and situated their stuff around a large tree. Lissa sighed heavily as she slumped against the tree, an audible grumble coming from her stomach.

"Gods I'm starving." she complained as Frederick started walking away.

"I believe that calls for some hunting, I'll go find us something milady."

"Thanks Frederick." Lissa grumbled as Cecil gathered wood from the area and placed it in a pile, using a simple fire spell to light it up. "Chrom, it's been dark for like thirty minutes, we should've stopped ages ago. I mean the bugs have been out for hours and I'm surprised one hasn't…agh, won goph in mah mouph, blech."

The group laughed lightly as Lissa continued to gag, finally spitting out whatever bug had flown into her mouth before giving a glare to all of them.

"Come on Lissa, hardship builds character." Chrom laughed as he plopped down next to the fire.

"Sure, like you need more of that you big doof." Lissa complained as she scooted over to the fire and held her hands out to warm herself up.

"Pretty sure he does Lissa." Cecil laughed. "Brave Sir Chrom, leader of the Shepherds, slayer of bandits...can't keep a straight face whenever any of the court ladys try and flirt with him." he joked, causing Lissa to fall into hysterics.

"I forgot about that. Was it Lady Irene that sent him into a blubbering mess or was it Lady Sera?" Lissa questioned while laughing, her laughter being contagious as Robin, Raven, and Cecil joined in. All the while Chrom was looking down, trying to hide his tomato red face.

"No, it was Lady Laura. I think she was saying something about gifting Chrom her underwea…" Cecil started before a rock hit him in the chest, being thrown by an overly embarrassed Chrom.

"Alright that's enough, we end that conversation here or I bring up what Lady Lora tried to do to you." Chrom said with an evil grin, causing Cecil to glup.

"Uh...right. Let's not bring that up." Cecil sighed as he leaned back. "Kinda funny how a two week venture ended in a single day, I thought finding all the bandits would've taken longer."

"I guess Lady Naga was just on our side today, the bandits are taken care of and we got two new recruits." Chrom smiled as he looked over to the twins. "Speaking of which, how are you two doing? Any memories come back by chance?"

Robin looked over to Raven with an inquisitive look, getting a frown and shake of her head as his response. "Looks like neither of us has remembered anything." Robin sighed.

"I've been thinking actually...Robin, what's the title of a ruling monarch?" Cecil asked.

"A King, or if it's a woman than a Queen." Robin answered.

"Uh huh, Raven, what's the name of a large body of water?"

"Depends on what kind of water it's filled with. There's seas, lakes, oceans, and so on." Raven answered.

"Right..." Cecil said as he cupped his chin before asking several more basic questions, all of which the twins answered easily. After a few more questions Chrom spoke up, figuring out what Cecil was trying to figure out.

"So you can't remember anything about your personal lives, names of kingdoms and towns or anything about the world we live in, but you can remember things that would've been taught to you like social classes and how to fight with swords and magic." Chrom pondered before looking over at Cecil. "What do you think?"

"I'm thinking their amnesia is magical based, more likely a curse if anything." Cecil sighed as he looked at the twins. "We'll have Miriel take a look at you two when we get back to Ylisstol, maybe she can figure out what happened to you two, or better yet see if there's a way to get your memories back."

"That would be great...do you think it's possible we'll remember who we were?" Raven asked sadly.

"Hopefully...but hey, if we don't then we can make new memories with you two." Cecil smiled. "By proxy of being part of the Shepherds, you guys are family now. We look after each other, now we look after you two."

Raven smiled at the response, an action Robin did as well as he leaned back and looked at the stars.

"Well at least we're stuck with a bunch of lunatics who care for each other." Robin laughed, the others following suit. "Hey, what are the other Shepherds like?"

Chrom smiled as he, Cecil, and Lissa started to tell the twins all they could about their new family, from Vaike's insistence on not wearing armor to Maribelle's ferocity with her umbrella, Stahl's ever hungry appetite and the inability to ever keep track of Kellam. They talked and laughed for almost half an hour before Frederick came back, hauking his prize from a successful hunt.

"Milord, I was able to find us some meat to cook for dinner." Frederick smiled as he hefted his prize forward, which landed with a thump.

"Is that a bear?" Cecil smiled as he stood up to examine the body.

"Indeed it is, it tried to attack me while I was stalking some deer." Frederick said as Cecil grabbed a knife from one of the knapsacks and started to skin the bear.

"I got this one Frederick, you mind getting the blankets?"

"Gladly." Frederick replied as he walked off towards his horse.

A while later, after having finishing carving the bear and sticking the meat over the fire, the whole group found themselves chowing down on the cooked meat. Well...almost all of them.

"Ugh, it smells like old boots. Why couldn't we have something normal to eat?" Lissa complained as she took a small nibble of cooked bear meat.

"Well it's this or nothing Lissa, at least Frederick was able to get something for us." Cecil laughed at her complaint before tossing a chunk of meat into his mouth.

"But it's bear meat! We're messing with the food chain here, this isn't what normal people have for supper. You two agree with me right?" Lissa asked as she looked over to Robin and Raven, neither hearing her question as they both gorged themselves on the meat. "Well, I guess anyone would be starving after not eating for awhile."

"Speaking of starving, you're going to be the same if you don't eat Lissa. It might not smell the greatest, but meat is still meat." Chrom commented, with Lissa sighing as a result.

"Yeah yeah...but why isn't Frederick eating any?" Lissa stated as she took a few more bites of meats.

"I...I had a large lunch, so I'm not hungry at the moment." Frederick said with a broken smile.

"Pfft, yeah right Frederick."

* * *

Hours later, after the group had fallen asleep, Cecil jumped up as pain coursed through his body, light glowing through his left glove.

"Son of a…" Cecil cried out as he ripped the glove off, finding his brand to be glowing dark red, pain continuing to course through his body coming from the brand. "_What the hell?"_

Cecil's small cry of shock was enough to wake both Chrom and Lissa, Chrom jumping to his feet and grabbing Falchion believing they were being attacked. Finding no bandits or brigands to speak of, Chrom looked over to Cecil and quickly moved over to him.

"What's going on?" Chrom asked as Cecil smacked his hand into the round, surprisingly working as the brand dimmed, staying lightly lit the same dark red.

"No clue...Chrom...this doesn't feel right." Cecil said as he jumped up and looked around.

"...no, it's not. Why is it silent?" Chrom replied.

"It's like all the bugs and birds are gone." Lissa said with a tilt of her head.

"I'm going on patrol, you coming?" Cecil asked as he grabbed his sword from the ground and started off towards the forest, Chrom and Lissa following behind.

"You think I'm letting you patrol alone, who knows what mischief you'd get up to." Chrom laughed.

"Good to see you still have a sense of humor." Cecil said as he started walking quickly, his brand glowing brighter every step they took further into the forest.

They walked further into the forest, the silence and stillness being most honestly creepy, before Cecil stopped in his tracks, finding a voice screaming in his head as his brand started glowing a bright green. The voice, minus the screaming tone, was soft and serene. He recognized it, but couldn't figure out from where. He did, however, fully understand what it was screaming.

"_**RUN!**_"

"Chrom, we…"

He was interrupted as the ground shook violently, the three almost falling over due to the difficulty of standing up straight.

"By the gods, what's going on?" Chrom yelled out.

"Earthquake!" Cecil yelled as he noticed the ground near them starting to split. "Shit, Chrom, Lissa, back to camp NOW!" he yelled as he carefully started to run, trying not to fall as the earth continued to shake.

"Right!" the two yelled as they quickly followed him, barely avoiding the earth behind them cracking apart and being launched into the air, magma spewing into the air and catching the surrounding forest on fire. Cecil looked back to see fireballs being launched from the spewing magma, one falling straight towards Lissa.

"Watch out!" Cecil yelled as he moved over and tackled her out of the way, barely missing the fireball as it hit the ground.

"Oh gods...thanks Cecil." Lissa said as Cecil jumped to his feet and helped her up, grabbing her arm and started running again.

"Thank me when we survive. Chrom, this way!" Cecil yelled as he turned to the right, taking Lissa with him as Chrom ran after them.

They ran for several minutes, getting far away from the epicenter of the quake before finally stopping for a breath. They all looked back and marveled at the disaster they barely escaped.

"Dear gods." Chrom breathed out heavily.

"We got lucky, we got really lucky." Cecil said as he looked around. "I think we're lost."

"We made a mad dash out of there, it wouldn't surprise me." Chrom said as he looked to see if he recognized anything, sadly not finding landmarks they could use for navigation back to camp. "We need to…"

He was interrupted as a sharp crack resounded through the area, the sky lighting up what seemed to be a magic circle appeared in the sky, and half circle, crystalline structure appearing in the middle of it.

"What is that?" Lissa questioned in a frightened tone as the half circle folded open to resemble an eye, one that was looking right at them.

"Not good news, that's what!" Cecil shouted as he got into a readied stance.

The eye glowed bright as they saw three humanoid figures started emerging from the eye, groans being heard as they fell to the ground and stood up quickly, purple eyes glowing in the darkness. Their eyes locked onto the group and started moving towards them, readying axes they held in their hands.

"Lissa, stand behind us." Chrom stated as he gripped Falchion and moved in front of her, Cecil doing the same.

Two of the creatures yelled at them, black mist spewing from their mouths, before quickly sprinting towards the two at high speeds, both jumping into the air with axes raised. Chrom dodged to the side and sliced through the side of the creature, while Cecil ducked below the the creatures swing and sliced at it's back. Both were surprised as both creatures unnaturally turned their head and looked at both of them before turning their bodies and swinging at both of them once again.

"These are more durable than they look!" Cecil yelled as he parried the axe out of the way and slammed the tip of his sword into the creatures neck, it groaned as its body started to disappear into and black mist. Chrom had quickly dispatched his opponent as well, knocking it onto the ground before stabbing it in the back.

"Not the hardes…"

Chrom was interrupted by a scream, both looking over to see Lissa being cornered by the third creature.

"Lissa!" both of them cried out they they both started running towards her, not noticing two more figures dropping from the eye. Moving quicker than either Cecil or Chrom, one of the figures quickly ran in front of Lissa and blocked an overhead chop from the creature, struggling as her swords started to slip. The person grunted as the creature tried to push down, before looking over to Chrom, who had stopped in his tracks in surprise, Cecil being preoccupied as another creature ran over and attacked him.

"Help!" the person yelled out as Chrom stood their dumbfounded.

"R..right." Chrom said as he ran over, raising his sword as the person pushed back against the creature and caused it to stumble back, opening it up to a double slash from the stranger and Chrom that killed it, the body dissapereing like the others as Cecil jogged over to them, having taken care of his opponent. "Quite the entrance friend, what's your name?"

Getting a good look at the stranger, they seemed young, maybe the same age as Lissa and Celene, and was wearing an outfit that seemed overly similar to Chrom, with the standout features being a butterfly mask they wore on their face.

"Marth." he replied.

"After the Hero-King? No matter, thank you for your help."

"Don't thank me yet, we've got more coming." he replied as he pointed off towards a clearing, around another two dozen of the creatures shambling through the woods.

"We need to kill them before they get out of this forest." another voice came from behind them, a young woman with her red hair pulled into twin tails and wearing a mercenary outfit walking up to them. She was also wearing what seemed to be a cream colored knights visor to cover her eyes. "We don't got much time so move it."

"Right, are you two willing to help us?" Chrom asked as he looked at the two strangers.

"Well duh, there's a reason we're here in the first place." the young woman snapped out before frowning. "Sorry, just a bit stressed."

"Don't worry about it, not the calmest of days for us either." Cecil smiled at her, causing her to look away. "Got advice on how to effectively kill these things? And what's your name?"

"Aim for the chest, where the heart would be, or chop off their heads." the woman replied. "And call me Celica."

The name made Cecil pause, but he quickly shook out of it as he nodded at her. "Right, thank you, Celica."

"Don't mention it." she replied as she and Marth took off towards the creatures, Chrom, Cecil, and Lissa about to head after them before hearing a horse running towards them.

"Milord, Milady! Are you both unharmed!?" Frederick shouted as he reached them, both Robin and Raven running up behind them with weapons at the ready.

"We're fine Frederick, but we've got combatants to deal with." Chrom replied as he pointed Falchion towards the shambling group, seeing a few being cut down by the two newcomers. "Aim for the head or the chest, otherwise they keep walking.

"Gods...are these things common to the area." Robin asked as they headed out towards the clearing.

"I can guarantee you they're not. Got any ideas on how to deal with this you two?" Chrom asked the twins.

Both looked around the field and pondered, noticing a worn down tower around sixty feet in front of them. They both looked at each other and nodded.

"Let's head towards that tower and set up a defensive position, we can draw their attention towards us and make them come to us. Lissa, you stay inside and heal any of us if we get injured. Chrom, Cecil, you stay near the entrance and base of the tower and cut down any of them that come near the base of the tower. Frederick, use your horse to make strafing runs and take out any creatures you can without getting hurt if you can. Robin and I will climb up the tower a bit and use the height difference to lob spells at them, sound good?" Raven asked as they started towards the tower.

"Sounds better than what Chrom would come up with." Cecil joked as he tossed a fire spell at one of the creatures, hitting it in the back and causing it to turn around and groan at him before chasing after them.

"He's not wrong. Shepherds, to battle!" Chrom shouted, trying to get the creatures attention and succeeding. The group started a mad dash to the tower, Cecil, Robin, and Raven tossing pot shot spells at the creatures, injuring a few and causing a majority to chase after them. "Marth, Celica!" he yelled out to get their attention, both looked at him as he pointed at the tower and they both nodded their heads, heading towards the tower as well.

As the group reached the tower, Chrom kicked down the slivers of wood that could be called a door and stood to the side to let the others run in. Lissa stayed on the ground floor as Robin and Raven quickly jumped up the spiral stairs leading up to the missing roof, finding good vantage points where large holes had been knocked out of the wall. Chrom and Cecil stayed just outside of the entrance and started hacking at whatever creatures got close, with Frederick using his horse to make quick strafing runs around the base of the tower, running through every creature he could with his lance, all of them following the twins plan to almost perfection.

"At least they aren't organized. Chrom!" Cecil yelled as he ducked, Chrom swinging over him and slicing through a creature that had ran towards Cecil. Cecil stepped behind Chrom as he stabbed to the right of Chrom, piercing through one of the creatures skulls that had tried to sneak up on Chrom.

"Refreshing I suppose. Cecil!" Chrom replied as he blocked a strike from another creature and forcing it back as Cecil deftly tossed his hand towards the thing, firing a thunder spell through its skull and evaporating it into dust. "Robin, how's it look?" he shouted up.

"They're thining out...wait, there's more coming out of the trees!" Robin yelled as several spells were launched towards the edge of the clearing.

"Damn, there's almost an endless supply of them." Cecil sighed as he tossed a fireball at a charging creature, bruning it to dust as Celica ran behind it and chopped the head off of another.

"Happens with these things, they'll run out of reinforcements eventually." Celica said with an overly annoyed tone, doding out of the way of an axe before jumping back and joining Cecil and Chrom, being joined by Marth shortly after. "How many do we have around us!"

"Around ten...eighteen damn it!" Raven called out as she blasted another creature away, finding more running out of the forest.

"What I wouldn't give for Sully to just…" Cecil started to say as a flash of red ran in front of him and ran through one of the creatures with a lance. Jumping back and looking over, he found Sully pushing off one of the creatures from her lance as her horse ran forwards and turned around for another pass. "To do just that!"

"Always having fun without me 'eh? Never should've left you lot alone." Sully grinned as she made another pass, knocking a few creatures off balance and running another through. Frederick came from the other side and took out one of the creatures that was tossed off balance, the others being quickly dispatched by arrows that pierced their necks, causing them to fade away.

"It would appear that I get to show off my skills to the lovely Sully." a man wearing a heavily ruffled outfit and having light blue hair said happily as he took down another few creatures with his bow, quickly making his way to the group.

"You're still around Ruffles? I thought I lost you at the forest entrance." Sully groaned.

"Ah, true love will always find a way, for you see…" the man started before Cecil interrupted him.

"Can it Ruffles, you can fail at wooing Sully after we're out of this." Cecil yelled as he launched another fire spell.

"Of course, then you shall all experience the skill of the man who defines 'arch' in 'archers', Virion!" the man said loudly as he started to down creatures left and right.

"Wait…" Cecil paused for a moment. He recognized that name...it couldn't be. "_Forget it, thoughts for later" _he thought as he noticed a larger creature lumbering towards them. "Chrom, think we got what looks like a leader coming towards us!"

"Kill it quick, these things become even more idiots if we take it out." Celica yelled as she pushed away one of the creatures, Marth running it through and killing it.

"Right, Sully, Frederick, you're up!" Chrom yelled as the two started charging towards the creature.

"Take it out quick, these things keep coming!" Cecil yelled as another three creatures started attacking him, Celica quickly jumping in and helping him.

"Stay away from him you damn ash heads!" she yelled as she blocked a sword that was swung at Cecil, jumping her hand forwards and firing a Thoron bolt through two of the creatures, killing them instantly.

"Thanks for the save." Cecil smiled as he launched his own thunder spell through the remaining creature, leaving only a few attacking the group.

"Don't mention it da-Cecil." Celica gave a quick smile, but she looked away while doing it.

More and more creatures started to charge at the group from the tree line, if they didn't hurry up and take out the leader they'd be overrun in a matter of moments.

"Sully, hurry it up!" Chrom yelled as he dodged another swipe from one of the creatures.

"Trying!" she yelled back as her horse charged through the creatures, barely scraping the leader's chest before running past it. "Damn, Frederick it's up to you." she called out as Frederick started charging towards the leader.

Frederick's lance started to glow as he pulled it back and yelled out in anger, "Pick a god and pray!" He slammed his lance into the creatures head so hard it ripped it off it's neck and forced it down the shaft down next to Frederick's hand, the body falling to the ground as both it and it's head both disappeared.

As the leader died the remaining creatures stopped in their tracks, groaning harshly before falling over and disintegrating into dust, allowing the group to final breath in relief.

"Thank the gods, stand down Shepherds!" Chrom yelled as he sheathed Falchion. "Is everyone alright?"

"Bit tired, but fine." Cecil replied as he plopped onto the ground.

"Exhausted." Celica replied as she did the same action as Cecil. "And a few scrapes and bruises."

"Same here." Marth answered as Lissa ran out of the tower.

"I can take care of that, stay still you three." Lissa said as she ran over and started to heal the two strangers and Cecil.

"Anyone else?" Chrom asked as he looked at the others, all who were shaking their heads. "Good, Sully, how's Ylisstol?"

"In a panic, but there's no damage. Thankfully all of that nonsense was constrained to this area." Sully replied as she hopped off her horse. "And this guy followed me here, no idea where he came from." she pointed at Virion.

"I came at the behest of true love, please dear Sully, will you marry…"

Virion never finished his sentence as Sully punched him in his chest, the air escaping his chest as Virion started coughing.

"I've already got someone Ruffles, answers no." Sully answered angrilly.

"Oof, I suppose love has a way of breaking hearts. So be it, I shall scour the land for my true love once again." Virion said dramatically, Sully shaking her head.

"True love, yeah right." she groaned as Cecil laughed.

"Whatever the case, I thank you for you help Virion." Chrom said as he held out his hand, Virion grabbing and shaking it.

"My pleasure good sir, I've actually been looking for some employ for a short while, would you happen to be in need for an archer like myself?"

"Actually we don't have an archer in the Shepherds...if you'd be willing, I'd be glad to have you."

"And so you shall good sir, Virion, Archerest of Archers, is now in your service." Virion smiled as he bowed.

"Ever notice we attract the weirdest people to the Shepherds?" Cecil smiled as Lissa started to heal him.

"I've been here for less than a day and I can agree." Robin smiled as he and Raven joined them, Cecil smiling all the while. "Can't wait to see the rest of this band of misfits." he laughed.

"Oh you'll love 'em, you two will be accepted so easily by the others." Cecil laughed as Sully noticed the twins.

"Who are the new bloods?" Sully asked as he looked at them.

"Robin and Raven, our new tacticians." Cecil answered her.

"Nice to meet you Sully." Robin gave her a quick smile, Raven doing the same.

"Heh, likewise you two. You two did well keeping them alive, so you're good in my book." Sully laughed.

"Oh that reminds me..." Cecil looked at Chrom with a smile.

"Hey Chrom…"

"What?"

"Twenty."

"Twelve...damnit, how did you get that high?"

"We never counted the bandits from Southtown, you're buying drinks."

Chrom and the rest of the group, minus Marth, laughed lightly at the banter, truly being able to relax from the hectic going ons of the past day. Chrom walked over and helped Cecil up before calling out to the others.

"Right, let's get back to Ylisstol and report to Emmeryn, she'll want to know about this." Chrom shouted, everyone replying with 'Yes Sir'. "Are you two coming along?" he asked as he looked to Marth and Celica.

Marth shook his head, "No, we have our own things to do. But this is a warning of things to come, be prepared for the worst."

"Well thanks for the warning. Marth, Celica, I hope we see you again. And thank you for your help." Chrom smiled as the group waved their goodbyes and started moving towards the general direction of Ylisstol.

As the group finally got out of earshot, Severa took her visor off to show red strained eyes, as if she'd been crying for the last several minutes.

"We're here Lucy...they're alive...all of them." she cried lightly, showing a rare side of herself that not many got to see, as Lucina pulled her into a side hug.

"I know, and we'll keep it that way. Come on, we've got little over a month before they head to Ferox." Lucina said as she pulled away from the hug, Severa sniffing as she placed her visor back on.

"Right, let's get going." Severa said as she sheathed an old and battered Goldbrand into its sheath and the two made their way out of the forest.

* * *

Halfway back on their way to Ylisstol, a thought popped into Robins head as they were walking.

"Hey, didn't you say you had a story about some 'warthogs'?" he asked Chrom.

"Oh right, that was an interesting event. So here's what happened..."


	4. Before Awakening

It was a little over two hours before the group came across Robin and Raven, and they found themselves relaxing at a river just south of Southtown. They had been walking all day, and having not found any of the bandits they were looking for, Chrom had called for them to take a break and eat. They had finished eating twenty minutes ago, and now found themselves bored out of their minds and were now, with Lissa having been the first one doing it, throwing what rocks they could find at the river to see how many skips they could get.

"Hiiyaaa!" Lissa yelled as she tossed a small stone towards the nearby river, and succeeded as the rock skipped twice before sinking. "Well it's better than nothing."

"Seeing as you don't get much practice, I'd have to agree, Lis." Cecil commented as he sat on the bank of the river.

"That's two for Lissa, three for Chrom and I, and none for Frederick." Cecil said as he looked over to said knight, who was organizing the saddle bags attached to his saddle. "You sure you don't want to join in, Freddy?"

"I appreciate the offer, Lord Cecil, but at least one of us must be ready in case an enemy shows up." Frederick gave him a small smile before returning to organizing.

"Well can't fault you there." Cecil shrugged as he looked around him and found another stone to toss. Finding a fairly flat one, he grabbed it and wound his arm back, flinging it forwards and launching the rock. It skipped four times before sinking near the middle of the river.

"And that's four for Cecil. Damn, was really hoping we'd tie..." Chrom commented, who was resting his head on his hand. He sighed heavily before he stood up and dusted himself off, checking himself to make sure he had everything. "Right, we should get going before something fun happens."

"You know something's going to happen now right?" Cecil asked as he jumped up.

"That's what I'm hoping for. It's been a boring two weeks." Chrom chuckled as he started walking over to Frederick. "Where should we head to next?"

"We haven't gone west in a few days, we could recheck through that area before maybe going south again." Cecil replied as he and Lissa followed behind him.

"Sounds fine to me, let's get a move on then." Chrom nodded as he turned and started west, stopping as he got a few feet away. "Do you hear that?"

"What?" Cecil asked as he walked over to Chrom, going silent to see if he could hear anything. He could, it sounded like there was a group of people back on the main road, which was obscured by a large line of bushes. "Yeah I hear it, should we check it out?"

Chrom nodded as he started off towards the main road, the rest of the group quickly following behind him. As they reached the main road and were able to look behind the bushes, finding a group with a few more people than their own group had. There were two people, a young man and woman, wearing bleached white armor and for some reason not wearing shoes, a woman wearing what seemed to be a stage performers dress, a maid and butler, two mercenaries if their armor was any indication, and a dark mage.

"Weird group set up." Cecil commented as they looked at the other group.

Chrom snorted, "Not like we're much better. They seem to be lost, let's go see if they need any help." he said as he started walking over to the group.

They surprisingly got right next to the group without being noticed, quite the feat as they were just standing in the middle of the road, and were able to overhear some of their conversation.

"The Halidom of...Ylisse? Where are we?" the man in white armor questioned as he read a sign on the side of the road.

"A deeprealm maybe, we did walk through the Dragon's Gate to get here." the woman besides him replied as the butler sighed.

"Wonderful…"

"Excuse me, are you alright?" Chrom called out as they got close, the woman jumping out of her skin as she quickly turned around to look at them, the rest of the group turning to look at them as well. Cecil only saw it in the corner of his eye, but he swore he could see the two mercenaries and dark mage's jaw almost hit the floor.

"Gods you scared the hell out of me." the woman complained with a frown.

"Heh, sorry about that. It's just you lot look lost." Chrom replied with a smile.

"And on top of that strange as well. I've never seen your kind of clothing in this area, could you please…" Frederick had started ranting before Cecil cut him off.

"Easy Freddy, you're acting as if you want to toss them in a cell." Cecil sighed as he looked at him, Frederick being as stoic as always.

"Nonsense, I am doing my duty, nothing more." Frederick replied, but stayed quiet anyways.

"Sorry about him, he gets anxious whenever new people show up. But hey he's right, you're clothing is a bit weird. Are you guys travelers?" Lissa asked, smiling brightly.

"Um...yes, I suppose. No offense, but who are you?" the woman asked.

"Oh, right, probably should introduce us." Chrom said as he rubbed the back of his neck in embarrassment. "My name is Chrom, I'm the leader of the Shepherds, a small band of warriors that help protect this land. The small delicate one is my little sister, Lissa…"

"I am not delicate! Ignore him, he's a bit of a dunce. But it's nice to meet you." Lissa said with a small growl towards Chrom.

"Ehem, the towering questioner of all things holy is our knight, Frederick." Chrom said as he gestured to him, Frederick giving a short bow. "And this snark machine is my second in command, Cecil."

"I'd prefer the term 'Snark God' thank you very much." Cecil gave a mock salute to Chrom before turning his attention to the other group. "Kidding, it's a pleasure to meet you all." he said with a genuine smile.

"I see...well my name is Kamui, and this is my brother Corrin." Kamui gestured to herself and the man next to her.

"This is our butler, Jakob." Corrin smiled as he gestured to the butler, who gave a curt nod. "And this is our close friend, Azura." he guestered over to the woman in the performer's outfit.

"It's a pleasure to meet you all." she giggled.

"Oh, and these are some friends of ours. Selena, Laslow, and Odin." Kamui said as she gestured to the other members of the group, who were standing back a bit and staring at the Shepherds. "Um...are you guys alright?"

"Wha..oh, yes Lady Kamui, but this bright plain reminds us of the lands of our birth!" Odin said dramatically before moving closer to the group, Selena and Laslow following.

"Ignore him, he's being an idiot like always." Selena huffed.

"It's not a bother Selena. But you'll have to tell me more about your homeland when we get back, I'd love to hear about it." Kamui smiled at Odin. "And I told you, none of that Lady business."

"Uh..right." Odin smiled awkwardly.

Chrom smiled at the antics, it reminded him of the Shepherds on some of their outings. "Well it's a pleasure to meet all of you, now is there anything we can help you with?"

"Well...the truth is we're in pursuit of a group...you haven't seen anything strange lately have you? Like some warriors that kinda look...invisible?" Corrin asked.

"Invisible warriors?" Chrom questioned, a look of horror coming to Frederick face.

"Warriors? Have we been invaded, perhaps Plegia has started…"

"You're rambling again Freddy. So about…" Cecil started as he looked over, the butler whispering to Kamui and Corrin before he looked back at them.

"I'm sorry, did I say invisible warriors? I meant warthogs, our prized set of invisible warthogs escaped and we're trying to find them." Corrin said with a broken smile, all the while Jakob facepalmed.

"Invisible warthogs?" Cecil deadpanned with a raised brow.

"Yes, they're quite dangerous animals from where we come from, but they make good guard animals...but they can make quite the ruckus if left alone. We don't want anyone to get caught in their rampage if they get angry." Kamui tried explaining before Frederick finally spoke up.

"I'm sorry to say but your behavior is highly suspicious, and your story is suspect at best. What are you up to, if you intend any ill will towards this land I'll…" Frederick started rambling again, causing Cecil to glare at him.

"Knock it off, or I'll sign you back up for Richard's Hellish Fitness Month." Cecil said sharply, quickly shutting the knight up much to Chrom's surprise.

"Yes sir." Frederick replied as he backed away slightly, fear filling his face.

"Is it really that bad?" Chrom asked as he looked at Cecil.

Cecil pointed to the knight standing next to him, "It can make him stop fretting over everything around him just by mentioning it, it's bad." Cecil sighed before looking at Kamui. "Sorry, He gets overly worked up when it comes to his Lord and Lady."

"Don't worry, we understand how it is." Corrin said as he and his sister looked at Jakob.

"I live to serve the Prince and Princess, I will not slouch in my duties." Jakob replied to their looks.

"Oh, you two are royalty?" Chrom asked with a surprised look.

"Uh..yes, we're from…" Kamui started, before being interrupted as they heard a scream from down the road, Corrin and Kamui's group immediately reacted by pulling their weapons out.

"Think we found your warthogs, Kamui." Cecil said as the Shepherds drew their weapons.

"Unfortunately I believe we have. Let's go, everyone, before anyone gets hurt." Kamui said as she turned and headed off in the direction the projectile came from, her group and the Shepherds running after her.

"This is our fight, you guys don't have to help." Corrin called out over his shoulder towards the Shepherds.

"No can do Corrin, these might be your beasts but this is our home. It's our duty to make sure any threats to our people are dealt with." Chrom said back, running slightly faster than before.

"Then we happily accept your help." Kamui smiled before hearing Cecil snicker.

"You'd get it even if you didn't Kamui, we tend to be a bit stubborn." Cecil joked as they ran off towards the coming battle.

* * *

As the large group reached a section just north of where they had come from, a large clearing in the nearby forest with a stone bridge crossing a northern part of the river the Shepherds had been resting at. Being hardly visible, the 'warthogs' were situated in small groups around the area, causing the group to split up. Chrom and Cecil went with Corrin and Azura, while Frederick and Lissa went with Kamui and Jakob. Meanwhile, Selena, Laslow, and Odin ran off in their own group, with Selena and Laslow currently squaring off with two 'warthogs', while Odin was tossing spells at another 'warthog' that was trying to hit Laslow with a thunder spell.

"Gawds, what kinda crap did we get into this time." Selena complained as she dodged out of the way of a sword being swung by one of the 'warthogs'. "We're already dealing with these stupid invisible soldiers, and now we're back home for no gods forsaken reason."

"And at a time that none of the things we tri...succeeded in stopping have happened. I mean, Uncle Chrom and mother look so young." Odin spoke normally, tossing a arcthunder spell at an invisible soldier that was charging at Laslow, hitting it dead in the chest and it dissipated into nothingness.

"Well whatever is going on is second fiddle at the moment." Laslow grunted as he did a quick step forwards, stabbing his sword into the chest of the soldier in front of him, tearing it out and blocking a trike from another with a shield on his shoulder, Selena spinning and taking it out with her sword before turning around again to block a strike from the soldier that was now behind her. Odin tossed a thunder spell at it, causing it to flinch and allowing Selena to run it through, finishing off the small group of invisible soldiers they were engaged with. "I suppose that takes care of that." Laslow said with a sigh.

"Yeah, great, too bad there's still a bunch of them." Selena complained as she looked over towards the bridge, where Corrin, Azura, Cecil, and Chrom were fighting several of the invisible soldiers.

"Heh, I think we're used to that at this point. Come on, let's go help Lady Kamui finish up what's left of her opponents." Odin smiled as he turned and ran off towards the edge of the forest, where Kamui and Jakob were making short work of the enemy. Laslow and Selena started after him, but Selena slowed down and stopped, looking back towards the bridge once again.

"I think Odin and I have this side covered, go help Lord Corrin and our family." Laslow's voice piped up behind Selena, causing her to jump slightly before glaring at him.

"At least let me know you're there…" Selena said with a huff, looking away. "Thanks." she gave a slight smile, not being seen by Laslow, as she ran off towards the other group.

"Still the same old Severa." Laslow chuckled as he turned and hurried off towards Odin and the others.

A sharp whistle rang in Cecil's ear as what seemed to be a metal blade came close to chopping his ear off, Cecil barely dodging to the left as he sliced in front of him, killing whatever the creature was that attacked him. He quickly jumped back as another charged at him and knocked into Corrin, who was also holding off another one of the so called 'warthogs'.

"Naga damn it...Duma too." Cecil whispered to himself as he blocked an oncoming strike from the creature, locking its blade with his own. "Corrin, spin!" he said as he kicked the creature back slightly, allowing him to spin around Corrin and kill the unsuspecting creature that was engaging Corrin with a quick uppercut with his sword, Corrin following his example at the same time and decapitating the other one as it righted itself.

"Corrin, your sister is a horrible liar."

Corrin sighed as he sliced through the creature in front of him. "I know…"

"We can get actual explanations later, let's focus on what's in front of us for now." Chrom as he charged towards another creature off to the side.

"Right." Both Cecil and Corrin agreed as they teamed up to kill a larger creature that had started running towards them. Cecil ran forwards and slid past it and spun around for a strike at what he hoped was its leg. His sword met resistance as it ripped through its flesh, a scream of pain bellowing out from the almost invisible creature as Corrin jumped forwards and pierced the creature's skull with a spear...that was attached to his arm. Or was it his arm?

"Corrin, the hell is that?" Cecil questioned as he hopped back over to him as the creature melted away, looking at his arm/lance thing.

"Oh...sorry I guess I'm not used to using it around people who don't know my sister and I. We're both dragons...as weird as that may sound here. So we can transform our bodies with various pieces of our dragon forms." Corrin smiled nervously as his arm changed back to normal.

"Huh." Cecil tilted his head. "Well it's not common, but the stories of manaketes have circulated the world for a few thousand years. Move your head to the right please."

Corrin tilted his head but did as asked, Cecil shouting 'Elthunder' as a flash of lightning streaked by his head and killed one of the creatures behind Corrin. Corrin looked behind him to the creature before looking back with a smile.

"Thanks Cecil. What is a manakete, by the way?" Corrin asked as another creature ran at them, though it was tripped by Azura with her lance as she danced around it before stabbing it in the back as the two warriors got back in a ready stance in case anything else ran at them.

"Perhaps that is what they call dragons here." Azura pondered as she joined them, looking around for any more creatures.

"In a sense. How many creatures are left?" Chrom asked as he jogged over to them, having finished off all enemies in their area.

"Uhh…" Corrin mumbled as he looked around.

"Around ten, I believe. They're grouping up over there." Azura pointed over to the edge of the treeline, the faint outlines of the creatures warping the trees behind them. They could see Kamui and Jakob running over there with Laslow and Odin, and Selena had just reached their group and glared at them.

"Couldn't at least leave something for me?"

"Sorry Selena." Corrin chuckled. "Come on, let's finish these things off and go home." he said as he ran off towards the creatures, everyone else following him.

The group converged on the creatures, the last remaining creatures being killed as they all teamed up on them. The last one standing, an overly large creature seemingly with armor, was killed as Cecil and Chrom distracted it so Corrin could leap over it a slice its head off, finishing off all of the invisible soldiers.

"Whooo, that was a lot easier than it is normally." Corrin breathed out as he sheathed his sword.

"Normally, so this happens often?" Chrom asked with a raised eyebrow.

"Oh, uh, yes. The warthogs easily get out of…" Kamui started to state before Cecil cut her off.

"You know, we have warthogs here. Specifically in southwestern border next to Plegia. They come up to our knees, if they're large, and they walk on four legs. Kinda hard to hold swords when you don't have hands." Cecil stated, giving her a small smirk.

"...oh." She relied, blushing heavily as she noticed her lie had been caught.

"They say the best way to get to know someone is to fight them, and having done so I believe you all don't have any ill intentions for our home. But an explanation would be nice." Chrom stated as he looked at them. "First off, where are you from?"

"I doubt you would know of them, Hoshido and Nohr probably aren't on any of your maps…" Corrin started as Chrom eyed him.

"Did you say Hoshido and Nohr? As in the mythical kingdoms?" Chrom asked.

Silence filled the area as the twins stared at Chrom, Cecil sinking to a hip and Lissa tilting her head as the twins tried to figure out what to say. Azura and Jakob looked just as shocked, but Selena, Odin, and Laslow were passive to the knowledge.

"What...what do you mean by mythical?" Corrin asked shakily.

"Those kingdoms only exist in myths and fairytales here, ones that are widespread and known by most inhabitants of both this content and Valm. The stories of their great war have been published all around the globe as thrilling adventures with war and romantic drama...but the theories on if it existed or not always continue. At most, it's thought that the two kingdoms exist several thousand years ago." Cecil responded to the question.

Both Corrin and Kamui blanched at the statement, fear swallowing both of them as they questioned what happened to their home. Corrin slightly recovered first, before trying to defend his explanation.

"I...I promise you we're telling the truth, please don't think…" Corrin started saying desperately, stopping as Chrom started laughing.

"Don't worry, I'm not going to pry into your matters, your reactions show that you were, in my opinion, being entirely honest with us." Chrom smiled at them, the other Shepherds doing the same.

"Did you come through one of the Outrealm gates to get here? It would explain a lot if you did." Cecil asked with a smile.

"Outrealms? No, we…" Corrin started saying before looking at Jakob, who sighed and shook his head in defeat. He gave him a small hand gesture and Corrin continued on. "We came through a Dragon's Gate, it connects our home with things called Deeprealms. The...creatures we fought are ones we're fighting to defeat and bring peace to our homes. We found this group running through and gave chase, not wanting anyone getting hurt. And we somehow ended up here."

"Sounds like you've got your hands full then, Miriel would have a field day with this." Cecil laughed. " Anyways, do you know where your gate dropped you off?" Cecil asked.

"Yes, it was maybe several hundred feet away from that main road we met you at." Kamui replied.

"Then we'll escort you back there so you can all head home." Chrom smiled.

"T..thank you, Chrom. But you don't have too, we can handle ourselves finding our way back." Corrin stated.

"I'm sure you can, but as hosts to our other worldly guests it's the least we can do. Now come on, let's get you home." Chrom said as he gestured for the two of them to join him as he turned and started heading back the way they came. They did, Lissa hopping over to join them as Cecil and Frederick held back a bit, Azura and the other three joining them as the Lords and Ladies talked. Several minutes later, Azura broke the silence in the second group, a question tugging at her mind.

"Cecil...you said that all tales of our home are merely legends here. How...how do they end?" She asked timidly.

"Well...there's two main tales that have been passed down. The Tale of Birthright has the hero join with their blood family in Hoshido, defeating the Nohrian army and to their dismay, killing the youngest princess and High Prince of Nohr in the fighting. In the end they kill the evil king of Nohr, but their best friend, a songstress, gives her life to allow them to kill the king." Cecil started, nothing Azura started fidgeting at his words of death. "The other, the Tale of Conquest, has the hero join with their adoptive family in Nohr, defeating the Hoshidian army and, unfortunately, killing both princes of Hoshido in the process. But neither tale ends in peace, several years after both tales end, both kingdoms are utterly destroyed as an unknown enemy leapt from the shadows...killing the hero and their family in the process."

"I...I see." Azura responds sadly, while the other three looked away, not wanting to think that their mission ends in failure.

"I would suppose you should be thankful then, Lady Azura, that you do not seem to be of either tale...if your lacking reaction to the deaths of the royals say anything." Frederick piped up.

"True, I would reason that you and your friends are from the lost tale, one that most have not heard of. One where peace is restored, and the unknown enemy is defeated by the hero. But I don't think going over the details of it would be a good idea, I'm sure your adventures still have a way to go until the end." Cecil smiled at her.

"I would suppose so. Thank you, Cecil." Azura smiled, nodding her head as Selena quickened her pace, walking up to both of them and placing a hand on Cecil's shoulder.

"Hey, I want to talk to you...privately." Selena said sternly. Cecil raised an eyebrow at her, but smiled as he shook his head.

"Alright then, lead the way." Cecil motioned for her to walk ahead of him, which she did as he quickly followed along, walking almost exactly in between the two groups. "So…?"

"You...do you know a woman named Cordelia?"

Cecil tilted his head at her, but quickly shook his head with a laugh. "I should ask how you know that name...but I'm talking to someone whose jumped worlds so I'm not going to. Yes I know Cordelia, I'd honestly call her one of my closest friends, but I've got no idea what she'd say on the matter, we don't get to talk too often. Why?"

"...how's she doing nowadays?" Selena asked as she looked away.

"Decent, I suppose. Had a rough night a couple weeks ago that I had to help her out with, and I've noticed she's been a bit stressed lately, thinking of something to do with her parents." Cecil replied.

"Good. I need you to do something for me...tell her that I'll surpass her someday, that I won't live in her shadow forever." Selena said with a cocky grin, a grin being her response.

"Well now I'm really curious on how you know her." Cecil laughed.

"Well you won't find out, a girl never shares her secrets." Selena giggled, the sight throwing Cecil off. "Whatever, but it has to be you to say it, got it? Grab a cup of tea with her or something, I don't care."

"Well I was going to see how she's been once we got back...alright fine, I'll let her know." Cecil shrugged, Selena snorting at the comment.

"Good...at least there's still someone I can rely on then. Thanks." Selena said as she slowed and fell back in line with Laslow and Odin. Cecil shook his head with a smile before speeding up and falling in line with Chrom and the others.

"My my, what's this all about?" Laslow snickered as Selena came back.

"Nothing, just getting a message to Mom. And if my parents get together a bit sooner than normal then that's a bonus." Selena smiled.

"Heh, the rare sweet side of the ice queen shows it's head." Odin laughed before Selena smacked him upside the head.

"Shut up!" she growled, though she couldn't hide the smile on her face.

Roughly fifteen minutes later the group found themselves where Corrin had said to go, surprisingly finding a glowing gateway hanging in the air. Chrom and his group stopped and gawked at the sight, not believing they were actually seeing it.

"I'd suppose that's your way home Corrin." Chrom mused.

"Yes, I believe that's our ticket home.. You all go first, my sister and I want to talk to our new...friends before we leave." Corrin smiled at the others, who nodded and gave a quick goodbye to Chrom and his group before walking through the gate, with Selena looking back and shouting.

"Oi, Cecil, make sure you do what I asked, I'll know if you didn't." Selena smirked before hopping through the gate.

"Didn't give me a second to reply." Cecil smirked. "So, guess this is it." he said as he looked over to Corrin and Kamui.

"It was kinda short too. Kinda wanted to hang out more, that Odin guy seemed pretty fun." Lissa pouted.

"He is very lively, that's for sure. Once again, thank you for your help today, it would've taken much longer to take care of our problem if it wasn't for you four." Kamui bowed politely.

"No need to bow, we would've fought those things even if you weren't here, it is our job." Chrom smiled at them, with Cecil laughing in response.

"Yeah, protect the kingdom, and be the center of attention whenever the townspeople notice that royalty is in town." Cecil smiled, both Corrin and Kamui looked shocked.

"Royalty, so you are…?" The question stuck on Corrin's lips, which Chrom smiled at.

"Yes, in fact I'm the prince of this Ylisse, my sister Emmeryn sits on the throne as Exalt of our country. It leaves us plenty of time to make sure our subjects are doing just fine."

Cecil smiled as well. "Since we unfortunately probably won't meet again anytime soon, I'm also royalty as well. I'm the High Prince of the nation of Valm, a kingdom on the continent to the far west. Due to...a hostile takeover, my family has been living in Ylisse for over a decade now. We lost my father in our escape sadly."

Corrin frowned at the statement. "I...I can understand that pain. I was captured and raised by the Nohrian king during a supposed peace talk, where my father was killed before my eyes by the same man I mistook as my father for many years."

Cecil smiled as he placed his hand on Corrin's shoulder. "Well it's nice to have someone who knows how it feels."

"Likewise. Well then, I believe it's time for us to go, we've got many things to do and little time to do it." Corrin smiled as he and his sister turned and walked to the gate.

"Hold on a sec." Cecil called out, causing the two to stop as he ran over to Frederick's horse and searched through one of the saddle bags, pulling out a black covered tome before running back over to them. "Here, give this to Selena or Odin would you, it's a Ragnarok tome, should be helpful on you journey." he said as he handed the book to Kamui.

"Of course...thank you Cecil." Kamui smiled as she accepted the book before tilting her head. "...I understand Odin, but why Selena?"

"Can you not feel the magical aura she lets off? She should be as good at magic as my mother is if what I was feeling is correct." Cecil questioned with a frown.

"No, I've never noticed honestly." Kamui shook her head with a frown. "Either way, I'll give it to her when I can."

"Thank you." Cecil smiled. "You probably should get going, I'm sure they're fretting about you not being back yet.

"I'm sure they are. It was a pleasure meeting all of you." Corrin smiled.

"Likewise Corrin. If you ever find yourselves back in Ylisse after your war has ended, please come by the palace to say hello, I'd love to talk to you again." Chrom smiled brightly.

"We will make sure to do that, Chrom. Thank you all once again, I hope we meet once more in the future." Corrin smiled as he and his sister quickly walked through the portal, which promptly disappeared.

"See, told you something would happen." Cecil snarked at Chrom with a grin.

"And it's something I didn't expect to happen either, what's next, we find a new tactician that's just perfect for our group." Chrom laughed as they started walking away.

"Well now that you say that, it wouldn't be so bad. Come on, we still got those bandits to find." Cecil smiled as they walked towards a grassy hill a few minutes away, not noticing the barely visible purple coats of their soon to be new friends laying in the grass.

* * *

"And that's what happened." Chrom stated, getting looks from both Robin and Raven as they neared the large gates of Ylisstol.

"Do you know how far fetched that story is Chrom?" Robin asked.

"Yes, I do, and if it wasn't for the fact that we saw it with our own eyes I'd believe it to be all horse crap." Chrom laughed. "Ask Frederick, if he agrees you know it has to be true." he said as the twins immediately looked to Frederick, who sighed.

"Loath am I to admit it, but it is all true." he nodded, gaining shocked looks from the twins.

"By the way, we aren't going to talk about that story to anyone else. Don't need the prince to look like some insane maniac like Gangrel to the people now do we." Cecil commented as he waved at the guards at the gates, who quickly scrambled to open them before they reached the entrance.

"Uh...right." the twins agreed in unison.

"Thanks. Sully, you mind taking Virion here to the barracks so he can get set up? Should still be some rooms left." Cecil asked the knight riding on her horse besides him.

"No prob, come on Ruffles." Sully said as she grabbed onto Virion's arm and yanked him up onto her horse with him giving an undignified yelp. They both said farewell as Sully rode off past the gates, timed almost perfectly as the twins looked at each other before gazing back at Chrom, Lissa, and Cecil.

"Wait, you're all royalty!?" Robin and Raven both yelled, the story finally sinking in and recognizing what had been said.

"I thought you said you watched over your sheep?" Raven questioned, mouth agape.

"We do, it's just we've got a lot of them. And before you do anything stupid just us like you have been, none of us are really into the high and mighty stuff." Chrom replied, the twins both swallowing and nodding their heads.

"And don't go around saying I'm royalty either, please." Cecil asked with a pleading expression. "No one besides Chrom and his family know who my family actually is, and we'd rather keep it that way for the moment."

Raven quickly nodded her head, Robin following as Raven spoke. "Of course Cecil, I don't think we'd want to cause you any problems."

"Thank you." Cecil smiled as he walked in front of them all. "Now then, a proper welcome is in order. Welcome to Ylisstol you two." he smiled as they walked past the gates and immediately into the busy streets of the capital.


	5. Ylisstol

The streets of Ylisstol were bustling with activity as the Shepherds made their way up the main road towards the large castle in the distance. Frederick tried, and failed, to clear a path out of the hundreds of people in front of them, his voice only being carried away from the citizens chatter and shouts. Frederick sighed as he slowed his pace and joined back with the group, who were all sticking close together so not to get separated.

"You would think the people would hold you in higher regard Milord." Frederick sighed as he looked over to Chrom.

"Ha, it's fine Frederick, these people have enough to do without us making them stop so we can pass by easily." Chrom said as they pushed further past the crowds, quickly finding themselves amongst stalls selling all kinds of goods, with their owners shouting out to try and get any attention they could find. "Besides, if we can't find our way through a crowd like this how are we ever going to make it past stuck up nobles." he quipped, Cecil snorting at the remark.

"Oh if only it were that easy."

"Are they really that bad?" Raven asked as she almost got pushed out of the group by a passing woman who wasn't watching where she was going, apologizing before scurrying off.

"Oh yeah, a lot of the nobles we meet all try to 'earn our favor' so they can get higher up on the list so to say" Lissa comments with air quotations. "Well, that or they're trying to set up arranged marriages and the like, never really works out well though."

"Why?" the twins asked in unison.

"Chrom always chases them off like clockwork." Cecil explains. "The second the words 'possible marriage' leave said nobles mouths while talking to Lissa he quickly escorts her away from the 'creepy dastards' as Chrom like to say."

"That's because they are, always thinking of marriage and the royal families good graces, gods above Lissa is barely legally able to get married anyway." Chrom complains as the murmurs of the crowds start becoming more excited.

"Hey! I just turned seventeen last month, I'm perfectly able to marry thank you very much!" Lissa states indignantly, the crowds excited murmurs turning into happy shouts.

"They're still creepy dastards…" Chrom grumbled before looking around him. "What are these people getting all worked up about?"

"I would think…" Cecil began, before getting cut off by someone in the large crowd that had now made a wide line down the street.

"Lady Emmeryn, blessing upon you kind Exalt!"

"That would be your sister." Cecil smiled as he walked over and kindly asked some of the people in the line to let him pass, which they did once they saw who he was.

Passing through to the inner edge of the line, and being quickly joined by the others in the group, Cecil and the others found themselves looking at Emmeryn walking through the streets with Phila and Celes. Emmeryn was saying hello to everyone she could with the ones of the biggest smiles she could have, all the while Phila watched over everything like a hawk looking for its next meal, while Celes smiled at several people who greeted her from the sidelines.

"So that's Exalt Emmeryn? She looks like peace personified if you ask me." Raven smirked.

"She is, she's done a lot for this country since she became Exalt, and I'll be damned if the citizens don't love her for it." Chrom smiled as he watched his sisters' interactions.

"And she's the best sister anyone could ask for!" Lissa smiled widely before she leapt forwards and wrapped Emmeryn in a hug. Emmeryn jumped at the sudden contact, but quickly hugged Lissa back when she saw who it was.

"We're back!" Lissa said happily as she let go of Emmeryn.

"I can see that, welcome home Lissa, and to all of you as well." Emmeryn smiled as the Shepherds joined Lissa in the small procession, who continued their walk down the line of people, all of whom started calling out Chrom, Cecil, and Lissa's names as well.

"Thank you sister...we've got a lot to talk about when we get back to the castle." Chrom said sadly.

"Yes, I would assume so." Emmeryn frowned slightly, before having her smile returned and she started greeting people in the line once again. "Come, let us head home so we may talk."

Chrom nodded his head before they made their way up the ever moving path of citizens towards the palace, while Cecil fell back slightly to walk with his mother.

"Did you run into much trouble?" Celes asked.

Cecil snorted in amusement. "Like you wouldn't believe, we'll have to give a full report once we get back, though I doubt you'll think we're sane after we do."

"Hmm." Celes hummed. "And who are the two new ones?"

"Robin and Raven, we found them both asleep in a field near Southtown...but they both have amnesia. They had no idea where they were when we found them or who they were. Before you ask, they've done a lot to keep us alive since we met them, as such Chrom invited them to join the Shepherds."

Celes laughed happily, "Of course he did, Chrom's biggest flaw is his unmatched kindness. But he always gets lucky and ends up befriending some of the most talented people in Ylisse."

"Were it not for his unblemished track record I'd say that luck would run out eventually." Cecil smirked as they continued on their way to the castle.

* * *

It had been over twenty minutes since the group had reached the throne room, with Richard having come and joined them as Chrom began his tale of the last two weeks, more specifically the last few days and the majority of events that had happened. Having finished retelling what they had gone through, the entire room held different reactions. Celes stood beside Emmeryn with a smirk on her lips, trying to figure out if the blue haired prince was just messing with his sister or not. Phila and Richard both looked disbelievingly at Chrom, and Emmeryn...

"So...that's everything that needs to be reported?" Emmeryn asked with a raised eyebrow from the tale her brother had just spun in front of her.

"Yes, that is all." Chrom nodded.

Emmeryn went pensively quiet while she contemplated what she had heard, her face scrunched in such a way that she was obviously perplexed by what her brother had said.

"Did we lose you Emm? If so, where? The dimensional travelers, the two amnesiacs, Plegian bandits, or the walking ashmen?" Cecil joked as he sunk to a hip next to Raven, who elbowed him for the amnesiac line. "I know it sounds insane, but I promise you we are telling the truth. And Frederick was there for all of it, and you know if Frederick says that's what happened there's no way we're lying." he said as he gestured to Frederick, who quickly became the center of attention.

Frederick fidgeted slightly as the scrutinizing gaze of not only the Exalt of Ylisse, but also of his mentor, suddenly bore into him, daring him to agree with his charges. He sighed heavily, regaining his wits before looking at them both with unwavering eyes.

"As much as I loath agreeing to such an unbelievable story Milady, everything that my Lord has recounted to you happened as was said, and I personally witnessed every unbelievable second of it."

Emmeryn stared at him for a moment with a raised eyebrow, before dropping it and smiling radiantly.

"It would seem you all had an eventful trip then." Emmeryn laughed, causing both Phila and Richard to sigh heavily, while Celes just chuckled in amusement. "Thank you for watching over my siblings Frederick, and I'm glad you all made it home safe."

"Likewise Emm. How have things been here? Any word from Plegia?" Chrom asked.

"More importantly, have they made any more threats?" Cecil added.

"No, they've been silent while you were away." Emmeryn responded with a frown.

"I'm worried they're planning something, it's never been this quiet since Gangrel took the throne, I still say we should rally the army in case he tries something." Celes stated, looking over to Emmeryn.

"I know, but we shouldn't leap before we look. Even with the fact that the bandits ravaging the lower plains were clearly Plegian, we still have no idea if they were being paid by the crown to do so. I will not start building up an army for a war that might not even happen."

Robin looked at Emmeryn for a moment, tilting his head before saying, "Do you have any forces watching the borders?"

Emmeryn looked at Robin for a moment, thinking about what he said. "A few troop patrols go near the area, but we demilitarized after the last war so there's not a consistent presence in the area, and some of the terrain makes it difficult."

"Don't you have a significant Pegasus Knight force here in the city?" Robin once again asked, Raven replying before Emmeryn could as she smacked a fist into an open palm.

"Oh! That's a good idea." Raven complemented Robin, who smiled at the praise. Raven looked to Emmeryn and explained, "Unless Plegia comes at them with bows or wind magic, they would be perfect for running patrols along the border as none of their forces would be able to attack them as long as they're high enough. And with them flying, terrain wouldn't be an issue."

"You could send them in groups of two down the border and back up again, they should be fast enough that even if more bandits or troops start heading past the border after they pass, you could have them loop back a mile or so inwards of the border so they could spot any invading troops." Robin finished explaining, seeing Emmeryn's eyes wide open in shock.

"An excellent idea...the fact that I didn't think of it makes me think I should retire." Celes joked as she looked over to Emmeryn. "I say go with their idea, in the meantime we can think of ways to see if Regna Ferox would be willing to fight with us if war breaks out, I still have some friends in that area, perhaps they can help us convince the Khans."

"...I agree. Phila, ask around the barracks for volunteers for this endeavor and send them out as soon as they can..." Emmeryn looked to Phila.

"Of course Milady." Phila bowed before hurrying off.

"Cecil, inform the Shepherds that unless hostilities pick up, you will all be heading up to Regna Ferox in a month to ask the Khans for aid."

"Got it." Cecil nodded. "Wait, why me?"

"I was getting to that. Chrom, we will have to call a council meeting immediately to discuss the possible war and the possible threat those creatures you encountered pose to the Halidom."

"Damn politics...alright lets get this over with." Chrom sighed as Emmeryn stood up from her throne, Chrom and Frederick quickly joining her.

"Have fun with that, we'll go let the others know and give these two a tour of the place." Cecil smiled as he pointed a thumb at Raven and Robin.

"Before I forget, Robin and Raven, thank you for your assistance at both Southtown and in keeping my family safe from those creatures." Emmeryn smiled at the twins. "My family have decided to give you their utmost respect and trust, and so shall I. Please keep these three safe in the future."

"Of course Lady Emmeryn." Robin and Raven said in unison with a quick bow.

Emmeryn nodded with a smile before turning and walking off, Chrom, Frederick, Celes, and Richard in tow, leaving the last four as the only remaining people in the room.

"Alright! We get time to relax!" Lissa shouted excitedly, jumping up and down. "Oh, come on you two, I'll show you where you'll be staying." she smiled brightly as she latched onto Raven's arm and started dragging her away, Raven flailing as she tried to get away from the Princess' surprisingly strong grip.

Cecil chuckled at Lissa's antics before looking over to Robin, who gawked at the retreating figures of his sister and friend. "Don't worry, I'm not gonna drag you like Lissa's doing."

"I hope not, I'm sure Raven will be blushing for a while from the embarrassment." Robin laughed.

"I'm sure she will. Come on, I'll show you to the barracks and introduce you to the others...we should also try and catch up to those two before Lissa somehow gets both of them in trouble." Cecil chuckled as he hurried off towards Lissa and the captured Raven, Robin in tow.

* * *

The large doors to the barracks slammed open with a loud crash, causing any Shepherds inside to jump out of their skin, Stahl specifically choking on the food he had been scarfing down and needing Vaike to help him cough it up so he could breathe again. They all looked to the main door to find Lissa standing there with her leg raised and smiling wildly, having obviously kicked the door open, with an exasperated Raven still being drug behind her.

"WE'RE BACK!" Lissa yelled happily as she threw her arms into the arm, dragging Raven sharply along while doing so.

"I think you dislocated my arm." Raven mumbled as Lissa finally let go of her, Cecil and Robin walked up behind her and looked at Raven's slumped form.

"Oh shoot, sorry Raven!" Lissa apologized as she immediately started looking Raven's arm over. Cecil chuckled at the ensuing apologies Lissa kept spouting before looking over to Robin.

"Lissa's over excited nature aside, this is the barracks where we stay. We'll get rooms set up for you both in a little bit." Cecil nodded to Robin before looking at the Shepherds sitting around the tables in the main room of the Barracks, all staring at them with smiles and laughter. "Alright Shepherds, gather round!" he ordered, the Shepherds quickly standing up and moving over to them. "Right, are we missing anyone?"

"Miriel is doing some experiments, though Naga knows where." Stahl replied.

"Darling Celene is currently in etiquette lessons, she will not be joining us for a while." Marribelle stated as she walked over and started fawning over Lissa, who was still looking over Raven's arm, though she gently pushed her aside and walked over to one of the stone walls.

"Oof, I feel bad for her. How about Kellam?" Cecil asked, looking around.

"The big lugs over here." Sully yelled out, Cecil finally seeing Kellam closely standing next to Sully.

"Leave it to his fiancée to know where he's at." Cecil said under his breath. "Good, anyone else?" Cecil questioned.

"Ricken's stuck at the college for extra lessons or something." Vaike commented before looking at Robin and Raven. "So, what's with the newbies?"

"That's one of the things we're going over, and I'm going to assume everyone else is here. This is Robin and Raven…" Cecil said, gesturing to both in turn. "As of two days ago they are our new tacticians. They're both brilliant with battle plans and saved our hides a few times while we were out."

"I hope we all get along." Robin nodded at the Shepherds.

"Nice to meet you all." Raven smiled before forcing her arm back into place by slamming it into the wall, barely grunting from the pain.

"Ooh, though one over here...I like her." Vaike grinned. "Name's Vaike, but you guys can call me Teach."

Lissa snorted before bursting into laughter, Maribelle looking at her in horror from the 'unlady like' laugh she was making. The laugh was infectious as some of the other Shepherds started chuckling as well.

"Wha..hey, why are you laughing?" Vaike questioned with a downtrodden look.

"Since when were you the 'Teach' of anything Vaike?" Lissa questioned as she stopped laughing, though she looked like she could burst back into laughter at any moment.

"Hey! I can teach plenty of things...like this!" Vaike smiled before he hit his gut, causing him to burp loudly, grinning widely as he finished.

Vaike suddenly felt very out of place as his display was met by silence and deadpan stares from his fellow Shepherds, and Cecil just sighed as he put his face in his hands. Maribelle, on the other hand, was glaring at Vaike as if she was about to kill him, Lissa slightly moving away as she knew her close friend was about to explode.

"VAIKE! You big, bumbling, imbecile! That was absolutely revolting, why in the name of Naga would you even be proud of such a disgusting thing!?" Maribelle yelled at Vaike, who visibly shrunk from the verbal berating he was receiving.

"Oof, he's getting bad this time." Cecil whispered before leaning over to Robin and Raven, whispering, "Take note, never get on Maribelle's bad side." He received shaky nods from both of them as Maribelle finally stopped shouting, turning to look at Robin and Raven.

"My apologies dear tacticians, I hope you know that not all of us are like that bumbling oaf." she said, giving another sideways glare towards Vaike. "I am Maribelle Themis, daughter of Duke Themis, I hope we will get along as comrades in the future." she gave the twins a courteous curtsy, which looked slightly awkward without her having a dress on.

"Likewise, Lady Maribelle." Robin replied with a smile and bow.

"Hmph, take note Vaike, you might learn something from him." Maribelle said with a raised chin, but most could notice the small smile she had.

The rest of the Shepherds introduced themselves in a jumbled mess, earning laughs and smiles out of the others as the various hijinks and quirks the Shepherds had become known for showed their faces. Stahl had greeted himself with a mouth full of food, mumbling through half of his introduction before finally swallowing what he had in his mouth. Kellam was almost lifted into the air by Sully as she tried to introduce the slightly shy Knight, though it was mostly just to show off her strength. Virion, who had seemingly felt right at home after his short time at the barracks, made a more formal greeting in his own flamboyant way. Miriel, who was currently covered in ash from, as she put it, a 'slight miscalculation', had arrived during Virion's reintroduction and introduced herself in her monotone fashion. Sumia was the last to say hello, but unfortunately...

"It's nice to me..woooah!"

Sumia yelped as she tripped over nothing, again, and face planted hard into the stone floor, causing all present to wince at the cracking noise that echoed in the hall. Cecil sighed as he knelt down to help her up.

"We really need to get those boots of yours looked at, I refuse to believe you trip over thin air." Cecil smiled as he hoisted her back to her feet.

"I just got them checked yesterday." Sumia pouted. "Sorry, I tend to be clumsy on my feet. I'm Sumia, the pegasus-less Pegasus Knight of the Shepherds." she sighed out as a greeting.

"Pegasus-less? What happened to Archi?" Cecil frowned.

"He passed last week, his age finally caught up with him."

"Crap, I'm sorry Su." Cecil frowned as he gave her a quick hug, with her gladly hugging back. "Don't let Su's clumsy ness on her feet fool you, she's a monster when she's on a pegasus." he joked as he broke the hug and looked at the twins.

"Oh I'm not that good."

"As if, You set a new record at flight training, one that not even Cordelia has broken." Cecil smiled. "You just don't give yourself enough credit."

Sumia sighed trying to hide back a smile but failing. "Thanks, Cecil."

He smiled before looking back to the twins, "Anyways, that's all of us besides Ricken and my sister, I'll get you introduced later. In the meantime…" he stated before stepping away so he could look at the entire group.

"Listen up, I've got good news and bad news. The good news is we're getting a break, we've got the entire month off" Cecil shouted, gaining shouts of approval from many of the louder members of the group. "Bad news, we're shipping out at the end of the month." he continued, the Shepherds going quiet at the news.

"Is it Plegia?" Sumia asked worryingly.

"Yeah...relations with Plegia are going belly up. They've been quiet for the entire time Chrom and I were away, and you all know Gangrel's never been that quiet for over a few days. Emmeryn and my mother are worried that they're planning something...worse case scenario, we're going to war." Cecil stated somberly, the mood in the room quickly growing dim. "As such, we will be leaving at the end of the month and heading north to Regna Ferox to request their aid in the possible war."

"Do you really think they'll be willing to help us?" Stahl questioned as he placed an apple he was eating down on a table.

Cecil smirked, "Depends on if we do what the Khans want or not, I'm sure they'll be all for some combat if we ask nicely...but if we help one of them out a bit I'm sure we can make a bargain. Either way, I want all of you to keep your skills and weapons sharp, we need to be as prepared as we can be in case things go bad. That's all, you're all dismissed." Cecil stated before looking at Sumia. "Sumia, you're coming with me to the stables, we'll see if we can find you a new pegasus."

"Right." Sumia nodded as the Shepherds broke off to do their own things, with Lissa hopping over and grabbing both Raven and Robin by the arm.

"I'll take care of these two lugabugs and get them cosy, so you two go on ahead." Lissa smiled as she started dragging the twins off with a smile. "Oh, say hello to Cordelia for me." she yelled back, Cecil and Sumia watching them stunned at Lissa's strength.

"Well, at least Lady Lissa is as happy go lucky as ever." Sumia giggled.

"Always. Let's go, you can tell me what's been going on around here on our way over." Cecil said as he walked over and opened the main door to the barracks, holding it open so Sumia could walk through.

"Thanks. By the way, where's the Captain?"

"Oh, he's just having the time of his life." Cecil snickered in reply as he let the door close.

* * *

"Please Dear Naga, please just let one of these stuffy dastards croak so I can leave." Chrom groaned loudly in his head as he sat in the large council chamber, listening to the council members bicker back and forth amongst themselves as they couldn't decide on a course of action.

"We can't just suddenly build an army, that insane dastard will just make it an excuse to claim a new war on us!"

"He's already trying to do that anyways, we should just come out and do it. The citizens will understand our concerns and many will enlist."

"But we can't risk another war, it's barely been twenty years and we still hold the scars from the last one."

"And what would you do, hand Gangrel a white flag and tell him 'You win'!?"

"If it meant saving our people…"

"He'd just kill us all you loony, he doesn't want peace and he's constantly said that in any of the comments we've been able to hear about.

"Well then what do you.."

"QUIET!" Emmeryn shouted, pushing off her kind persona for only a moment to end the ceaseless bickering. "As much as we don't want another war, we have to be prepared for it. The bandits that have been pillaging our southern borders have been confirmed by my own brother to be of Plegian birth, and while they may possibly be just simple bandits, the fact that they never took anything with them tells me that either they are completely evil men who want nothing but death and destruction, or they were being paid by someone else to do it."

"But that doesn't mean it is King Gangrel that is paying them, it could possibly be one of the aristocrats near the borders who still hold a grudge." one of the councilmen stated.

"A possibility, but if that is the case, who is to say they do not have power in the courts and tells the king that we are the ones attacking him? It could still wind up with us at war if Gangrel decides that's all the excuse he needs to attack." another council member replied.

Celes sighed heavily, wishing she could go back to the stuffiness of a Valmese court than here. "Whatever the case may be, we must increase our military standing at least for the protection of our citizens on the border."

"But in such a short time? I say we should wait and see what they do, maybe nothing will happen." a member said, not noticing that Celes started looking very uncomfortable at the idea.

"I agree, a sudden increase in military strength will only allow Gangrel to confirm the fears of his people that we will once again invade."

"He will find a way to do that anyways, we must take action now to insure our country will be safe." Celes argued.

"But we have no reason to do it so soon without a true reason to tell the people."

"No, we must take action, and we need to do it soon." Celes again argued, anger seeping through.

"Why are you so insistent that we rebuild our army, Lady Celes? There's no reason for us to be in such a hurry when tensions have been fairly lax in most parts of the country."

"I wonder that as well, care to explain your reasoning? You are the Exalts advisor after all."

"Yes, tell us why you want to risk our peace that the Exalt, that you serve, tried so hard to obtain just a possibility?" a particularly ornery council member asked insultingly.

"The last time I waited to take action my husband was killed!" Celes screamed in anger and regret, her patience with the court members finally snapping. "I lost one that I loved dearly all because I thought we could just wait and think that everything would be alright! I will not risk the posibility of my daughter going through the same torture that I did!"

The room fell silent as Celes' words echoed, the obvious hint of pain in her voice present for all who were seated in the room. Most of the council men stared at her in shock, others hung their head for pushing the advisor too far. Richard had quickly made his way over to from the side of the room and over to Celes in an instant, placing his hand on her shoulder to show as much support as he could give.

Chrom looked at Celes with a frown, clearly saddened by the revelation that she felt responsible for her husband's death. He would be the first to say that Celes quickly became the closest thing he and his siblings had to a mother since Queen Mireva died, and they all loved her dearly. But even with all the years of her taking care of them, she almost never brought up her experiences of Valm and of her family's escape from the kingdom. The sound of his sister's voice broke him out of his thoughts, all eyes in the room looking to her as her voice sounded with finality.

"We will start recruiting at the end of the week, with no mention of a possible war until it can be proven that is what Gangrel truly wants. Until then, all recruitment will be for the protection of our borders from bandits and ruffians." Emmeryn started with authority, looking around at all the council members, "Any objections?"

None were made.

"Good, then we are dismissed. Please leave us, gentlemen."

They did just that, every council member quickly exiting the room to allow the Exalt and family to have relative privacy for a few moments.

Emmeryn looked to Celes with a coy smile, "So, since when have I been your daughter, Lady Celes?"

"You've been my daughter since the first time you came to me asking for advice on if Count Wilhuff's son found you attractive or not, barely a year after we arrived here. And if you're going to argue that point with all we've gone through then I'd say you're as mad as Gangrel, Emmeryn." Celes smiled back, a light blush adorning Emmeryn's cheeks from the comment.

"Wait, what's this about Lord Maxwell?" Chrom asked as he walked over, the blush on his sister's cheeks growing even redder.

"Nothing, nothing at all." Emmeryn meeped, quickly trying to subdue any redness in her cheeks and trying to regain her composure. "Moving along, we have much work to do so I will be heading out now, thank you for joining us Chrom."

Emmeryn was out the door without a second glance, embarrassment still flooding her mind as Celes laughed happily at seeing her so flustered. Phila sighed, giving Celes a small smile and a short bow to Chrom before chasing after Emmeryn.

"Well...at least that's finally over with. Dear Naga that was exhausting." Chrom slumped over with a sigh.

"It only gets worse as you get older Chrom, be happy you don't have to deal with them all the time like I do." Celes smiled as she patted his back. "Now I'm sure you have plenty of places you'd rather be besides this stuffy old place, I'm sure Emmeryn won't mind if you take some time off to rest."

"Sounds nice, but I must keep myself ready in case something happens."

"Always the responsible one." Celes giggled as she pushed Chrom lightly towards the door. "Go on, get out of here before you get roped into something else. I'm sure Fredericks is still waiting for you outside anyways, no reason to keep him waiting."

"Thanks Moth...uh, I mean thank you Lady Celes." Chrom nodded as he started walking out the door, freezing before he stepped out and looking back over to her. "Are...are you okay? That outburst was…"

"I'm fine, Chrom...just bad memories." Celes replied somberly.

"Alright..." Chrom frowned before walking out the door, leaving Celes and Richard by themselves in the room.

"It never gets any easier." Celes sighed, Richard laughing lightly.

"If it did I'd assume we were going mad milady."

Celes smiled slightly, "Too true. We avoided a war for years...I hope this one goes better than our last."

"It will, we'll be prepared this time." Richard replied. "By the way, I've received a letter from Nia, it would appear that she found my family on her way back from Valm. They were hiding on one of the outlying islands near Roseanne."

"That's the first good news I've heard in months, Richard." Celes smiled as they moved towards the door. "I can't wait to see how much little Rose has grown up in the last ten years, and I'm sure Lilina will be ecstatic to see her husband alive and well."

"I can't wait to see her either. Now then, I believe I should get to work thinking up a new training set for the new recruits. Need to make sure they're ready for anything." Richard pondered as they walked through the door and into the large hallway outside and headed down towards the war room.

"Hmmm...don't go too hard on them Richard, we don't need a bunch of drop outs."

* * *

"That's so unfair! Why do you get to meet the Silent Dragons when I'm not there!?" Sumia complained loudly during her and Cecil stroll over to the Pegasus Knight's barracks.

After learning of the boring two weeks the rest of the Shepherds had dealt with from Sumia, he recounted to her what had happened to his group in the last several days. Obviously, she was jealous about them meeting a certain Prince and Princess.

"Hey I didn't think we'd meet them so randomly either, it's not everyday you run into someone from ancient legends."

"Well are you sure it was even them? They could be descendants or something."

"Nah, they made direct references to Hosido and Nohr, and were shocked when we let them know we only knew of the kingdoms from legends. I'm pretty sure they were the real deal."

"Damn it! It's so unfair!" Sumia groaned very uncharacteristically. "Do you know what tale they were on? Who did they side with?"

"From our guesses they weren't on any side but their own, meaning the true legend is probably the Kingdom of Silence and not the Kingdom of Light or the Kingdom of Shadows. So at least something good came out of the meeting."

"No one's going to believe you though."

"True enough, but maybe people who understand how the Outrealm Gate works might be able to prove our tale...or maybe even find a way to their time."

"That'd be nice, the tales go into how beautiful the kingdoms were in their hayday, I wouldn't mind seeing them for myself."

"Me either." Cecil nodded as they reached the barracks. "Have you heard anything about the ranches sending in any new pegasus'?"

"No, I don't know if there's any here that don't already have a rider."

"If anything we can see if there's any at the ranch that they can send over." Cecil stated as he pushed open the large doors so they could walk through.

"Yeah...well, there is Lani…"

"We both know that stubborn mare won't listen to anyone but me or Cordelia. As much as I'd like to say it's a possibility I'm going to say I doubt it would work." Cecil frowned, Sumia sighing at what she knew was true.

"I guess that's what happened when you two were the only one's there when she was born." Sumia said as they entered the large open main hall of the barracks, finding a lone red haired pegasus knight tending to her steed. "Hey, Cordelia!"

Cordelia turned to look at her with a smile, but a look of shock replaced it when she noticed Cecil was with her.

"C..Cecil, I didn't...I didn't know you were back already." Cordelia said, stumbling with her words.

"Yep, we just got back a few hours ago. I heard from Sumia with what's been going on with your parents lately, sorry to hear they keep bringing that subject up."

Cordelia blushed lightly, giving a slight glare at Sumia. Sumia just smiled brightly from slightly behind Cecil, giving her a thumbs up and a wink. "Of all the things you could've told him about you just had to talk about me. I swear I'm going to get back at.."

"Cordelia, you alright?"

Cordelia jumped out of her thoughts with a slightly pinker blush than before. "Yes, yes I'm fine, everythings fine. A..anyways, what are both of you doing here?"

"Oh, right. We were needing to see if there was any pegasus' here that don't have a dedicated rider, I know we're supposed to have some here in case of emergencies." Cecil explained.

"Oh…" Cordelia hummed, cupping her chin as she looked towards the ground. "Besides Lani...no, we don't have any."

"Damn, we'll have to check the ranch later then…" Cecil sighed as the doors to the barracks burst open, one of the palace guards running inside. Cecil turned around to look at him, recognizing him immediately. "Bast?"

"Ah, there you are Lord Cecil. Your mother is requesting your presence immediately at the throne room, apparently she received some news from Miss Nia." Bast quickly bowed in respect.

"Nia's safe? That's great, I've been worried she might have gotten in trouble. Thanks Bast, tell my mother I'll be there shortly."

"Of course Lord Cecil." Bast nodded before quickly backing out of the doors.

"Looks like my free time is up for the moment…" Cecil sighed as he turned back to the girls. "Sumia, we'll have to meet up later in the week to try and find you a pegasus you can use, or we somehow convince Lani to let you ride her."

"Right, now don't worry about me and go see your mother, I'm sure it's urgant if she sent that guard all the way over here." Sumia smiled.

"Probably, I'll talk to both of you later." Cecil needed as he turned and started to walk out.

"Grab a cup of tea with her or something, I don't care."

"Oh, right." Cecil said to himself as he remembered what Selena had asked of him. He turned around and looked over to Cordelia. "Cordelia, are you busy tomorrow?"

"N..no, I don't have anything going on...why?"

"I was wondering if you'd join me for lunch, or a cup of tea at least."

"Yes!" Cordelia squeaked, quickly noticing how she had said it and blushing heavily. "I mean, I would love to join you."

"Great, I'll come find you tomorrow then." Cecil smiled before leaving the room, Sumia and Cordelia being the only ones left in the building.

Sumia beamed happily as she turned to look at Cordelia with bright eyes. "Here's your chance, you could talk to him about how you've been feeling lately."

"NO!" Cordelia screamed. "God's, I would be mortified, I can't talk to him about that. He'll think I'm some fickle woman or something."

"Hey, you wouldn't be saying you're madly in love or something, just that you feel like you've gotten over Chrom and hint that just maybe, there's someone else in your sights now."

"But is that the case? I've only been thinking about this after what happened at the party and with my parents constantly badgering me about marriage. I mean...I just…"

"Hey, calm down Cordy." Sumia smiled as she patted Cordelia's shoulder. "Sorry for edging you on, I just want to see you happy. Don't say anything to him yet, think about how you feel and then when you're sure of it, then talk to him."

"Alright...alright I'll do that."

"Besides, I've heard from Lissa that he thinks you're beautiful, so I'm sure you've got a shot if you decide to say something." Sumia giggled. "Sorry Cordy, but Lissa's got a point that you'd be a good couple." she thought to herself.

"Sumia!" Cordelia blushed heavily.

* * *

"Achoo!"

A large sneeze echoed out through one of the several large forests in the northern section of Ylisse, sending several birds flying away from the sudden noise. The cause of the sneeze was currently lounging in the water of a small, clear pond in the middle of the forest.

"Ow...that hurt." Severa complained as she wiped her nose, sighing as she went back to relaxing in the water. "Do you know where we're at Lucy?"

"Several miles out from Ylisstol, we've got another three or four days of constant walking until we reach the Longfort. So with our current speed…" Lucina said as she sat on the edge of the pond, giving a small glare at Severa, "We'll be there in eight."

"Hey, I haven't had a good bath in weeks, I'm not giving up a chance to actually feel clean for once. In fact, you should be in here as well." Severa said as she sat up in the water and started to comb through her hair with her fingers. "I don't think you've had a good bath as long as I have."

"I'm fine for the moment, Severa. I'll get a bath once we make it to Ferox."

"Suit yourself, the water feels great." Severa frowned. "You know...you need to loosen up a bit. Don't get me wrong, we need to make sure we save our family and stop everything from happening...but we've got some time to kill before we need to start being serious." she continued as she stood up and walked over to the edge of the pond, sitting down in one of the sunny areas so she could dry off quicker.

"I...I suppose you're right. It's just that I'm not used to it...we've never had time off before this. We always had to fight for our lives almost everyday."

"No kidding, I was there." Severa scoffed. "Let's just worry about making sure Aunty Emm has her back up from Ferox first, then we can worry about all the larger things that are going to happen. We'll just take one step at a time Lucy."

"Since when have you been the one to give out advice?" Lucina smiled.

"Hey, I have my moments." Severa glared. "Forget it...I hope the others are okay...I hope Silvie found one of the others. I know she doesn't do too well when she's alone."

"Your sister will be fine, Severa. I've seen her face far worse than being alone in a place that we could consider a paradise." Lucina smiled. "We'll find the others, or with any luck they'll find us."

"Or we just keep an ear out for Owain or Marc, we should be able to hear those two from a few miles away." Severa and Lucina laughed as she dressed herself and placed her hair back in her signature twin tails. "Well come on, you were the one complaining I was taking too long. Let's get going."

"Right." Lucina nodded as she dusted herself off. "With our new pace we should get there in three to four days." she said snarkily.

"Hey, I'm supposed to be the snarky one." Severa complained, lightly punching Lucina's arm before they both started walking north once again.


	6. Home

**Hey all, it's been a while hasn't it. Sorry about that, life's been a rollercoaster lately and I haven't had time to even think about writing this. Sadly, the metaphorical rollercoaster just got past the first loop and still has a ways to go. I'm not going to give a guarantee of when updates will come out for this, but I'm hoping to write as much as I can whenever I get the chance.**

**The chapter's a bit short this time, but I hope you all enjoy it anyways. As always, any and all comments are welcome and encouraged.**

* * *

"Alright!" Lissa said happily as she looked around at her handiwork. "I think we're good to go you two."

Her handiwork was in fact one of the larger rooms in the barracks which, after half an hour, had been fitted with another bed, dresser, and lockbox for any valuables that either Robin or Raven might have or obtain. The way the room was set up had it split right down the middle, with all the furniture being set up exactly opposite of each other on each side of the room. Smiling widely, Lissa turned around to look at the twins.

"I think I did a great job setting this up. So, what do you..." Lissa started but a groan from outside the door cut her off.

"_You_ did a great job? I did all the heavy lifting, all you did was stand there and boss me around." a tired Vaike groaned out, slumped up against the wall with his head looking towards the ceiling as if he were about to pass out.

"Oh don't give me that, you're the strongest one here. Of course I'd need your help getting everything moved around, you don't expect me to do everything do you." Lissa frowned with a slight glare at Vaike, who sighed heavily before slumping his head down.

"'Not delicate' my ass." Vaike mumbled under his breath, causing Raven to snicker as she overheard his whispered insult.

"Ignoring the big lug, I hope you both like the room." Lissa smiled.

"It looks great Lissa, thank you." Robin smiled back. "And thank you as well, Vaike."

"At least someone appreciates my help." Vaike groaned as he stood up, giving Lissa a slight glare. "Whatever, I'm gonna take a quick nap and then get back to training. Catch you two later...you too I guess l, squirt."

"Have fun training, Vaike." Raven called out after him as he walked down the hall towards his room.

"Always do."

"Well, now that's out of the way. I suppose we should figure out what to do next." Lissa said as she cupped her chin. "Oh, I should probably show you around town so you know where everything is. We can start outside the palace and go from…"

Before she could continue on, Lissa was interrupted as Celene hurriedly barged into the hallway.

"There you are Lissa, I've been looking for you." Celene sighed as she quickly made her way over to them. "Mom called us all to the throne room, apparently we got some news she wants to share with us."

"Aw, and right when I was going to show you guys around." Lissa sighed as she looked over to the twins. "Guess we'll have to do that later. Oh by the way, this is Celene, Cecils little sister. Celene, these are our new recruits, Robin and Raven, our own tacticians extraordinaires."

"Oh cool, our group just keeps getting larger by the second. Nice to meet both of you." Celene smiled as she looked over to the twins. "I'm guessing these two saved my brother and Chrom's rear ends right?"

"Yep, they ran ahead towards a group of bandits burning Southtown like they always do, and these two had to chase after them and keep their heads on their shoulders." Lissa nodded.

"Don't forget about the fight in the forest." Raven piped in.

"Oh, that too. They helped keep us in line and fight off this weird group of monsters we ran into. You missed a lot in the last few weeks." Lissa finished, finding Celene frowning at her.

"Yeah, everything interesting always happens when I'm not around. I'll probably be in a whole other part of the Halidom when my brother asks Cordelia on a date...whatever, we'll just have to keep goading the both of them until one of them finally asks." Celene sighed heavily.

"Yeah, that one might be harder to set up than my brother and Sumia. At least those two aren't being subtle about it, but neither of them will take the jump." Lissa sighed, forgetting they were talking about their plans in front of the twins.

"Anyways, let's go Lissa, we don't want to be late." she stated as she grabbed Lissa's arm and started dragging her away.

"H..hey, you don't have to drag me." Lissa complained as she tried to squirm out of Celene's grip. "Uh, I guess I'll see you two later."

"Have fun Lissa!" Raven laughed.

"It was nice to meet you as well, Celene." Robin called out after them.

"Same, see you later." she called back as she rounded a corner with Lissa in tow.

"...is it just me or are most of the Shepherds insane?" Robin asked, looking over to Raven with a raised eyebrow.

"Probably. But I think that's what'll make this job fun. Think of all the possible teams we could make, all the possible close friendships that could come from it...all the possible romances perhaps?" Raven grinned mischievously. "What do you say to playing a bit of matchmaking?"

"Oh dear Grima." Robin sighed, not understanding why he had said that particular name. "I have the feeling you've asked me this question before we lost our memories."

"And I have the feeling that you agreed to go along with it. I can read you like a book, as proper as you like to make yourself look I know for a fact we've got more in common than you'd want to admit to the others." Raven grinned.

"Oh really?" Robin asked with a raised brow, before grinning back at Raven. "Alright, I can't say that playing a little matchmaker on the side wouldn't be entertaining."

"Good, we get started in a month then. Maybe we can get those two to join in, it seems like they have their own little matchmaking group already."

"Too true, and I think we know our first targets. Take your pick on who you want to focus on, Chrom and Sumia or Cecil and Cordelia."

"I'll focus on Cecil and whoever this Cordelia person is, you focus on Chrom and Sumia."

"Splitting up to assault two different groups, are we going to play this like it was a battle?"

"Isn't it though?" Raven laughed. "Alright, I'm gonna go take a look around, you coming along?"

"Nah, I'm going to go wander around the library and see if I find any books I think are interesting." Robin shook his head and turned in the direction Lissa had told them the royal library was.

"Bring me back something, maybe some cheesy romance novel if they have any." Raven called out to him before walking off herself.

* * *

Several minutes after being summoned, everyone from the royal families, along with Frederick, Richard, and Phila, were finally gathered in the reception hall, with Cecil being the last one to arrive.

"Hey, you finally decided to show up." Chrom lightly jabbed with a grin.

"Not my fault the Pegasus Knight's Barracks are so far away from the palace. I told you we should've moved them closer."

"Now now, boys..." Celes chided, a small frown adorning her face. "We're here for an important reason, I expect you both to take this seriously."

"Right, sorry Mother/Celes." the two responded.

Celes sighed and shook her head. "Don't apologize, just remember you're going to have to be more professional sooner than you think."

Emmeryn quickly piped in, a small smile appearing as she spoke. "You can both get away with being silent during Council meetings for now, but if you don't speak up every once and a while the dukes will start to think they can gain more power by strong arming you into submission. Now, let's move on to what we're actually her for, Lady Celes."

"Right...as you've probably been told already, we've received a letter from Nia reporting on the current situation in Valm. First, for the good news..."

"My family has been found safe and sound, hiding in plain sight on one of the small islands adjacent to Rosanne. Both are currently on their way here with Nia." Richard smiled widely, smiles quickly adorning the faces in the room.

"Wonderful news, Sir Richard. It will be an honor to meet your family." Frederick smiled.

"I can't wait to see how Rose is, maybe she finally got to start practicing her lance technique." Celene commented.

"Knowing Rose, she's probably about to surpass Richard in skill by now." Cecil laughed.

"Oh no, I'm not getting beat by my daughter anytime soon, she'll have plenty to learn." Richard laughed at the jest. "Right after start practicing again myself."

"In any case it will be wonderful to have more friends in the palace. I've already had the staff working on securing a room for your daughter to stay in, Richard." Emmeryn smiled at the older knight.

"Thank you kindly, Lady Emmeryn. I'm sure they'll come to love living here." Richard bowed, the large smile never leaving his face until Celes got their attention once again.

"Ahem...now for the bad news. Walhart has mustered his army to unknown numbers, and is currently having them march on Rosanne in an act of aggression. From what Nia has learned, Walhart plans on remaking the Unified Empire of Valentia by forcing Rosanne, Chon'sin, and the other smaller nations under one banner, no matter if they like it or not."

"We saw this coming for years, I'm just surprised it took this long." Cecil sighed.

"As am I, Cecil. Whatever the case, I am hoping Walhart will not set his sights on this continent, otherwise Plegia will not be our only issue at the moment. For the time being, that's all we have to discuss. Nia wasn't able to get a lot of information without bringing suspicion onto herself, so for the time being we are in the dark for anything going on in Valm."

"Well...we could always pay the Anna Merchant Guild to keep an eye on things, you know they'll do a lot of different things for gold, along with the amount of contacts they have." Cecil said, shrugging his shoulders as he did.

"True enough, Cecil. Perhaps we can make an arrangement with them."

"Whatever the case, there's no use dwelling on it now less we get paranoid about it. There's nothing else that needs to be discussed at the moment…"

"Actually, speaking of Valm...I think Lord Barsson's son has joined the Shepherd's mother." Cecil spoke up, interrupting Emmeryn with an apologetic look.

"Virion? Are you sure?" Celes questioned with a raised brow.

"Light blue hair, wears the most gaudy clothing with as many ruffles as he can find, an almost constant smirk, and thinks himself quite the ladies man if what he's spouting since we found him is to believed."

Celes sighed, not trying to hide the small smile she had. "Yes, that sounds like Virion. Have him come to the throne room tomorrow morning, I'd like to have a word with him if he is actually the Virion we're thinking of."

"We'll make sure he gets here bright and early, even if we have to disturb his 'beauty' sleep." Cecil grinned as he looked over to Chrom, who smiled and nodded in return.

"Well then, now we have nothing more to discuss...right?" Emmeryn asked nonchalantly. When she received no answer but the shaking of heads and silence, she continued. "Then you're all dismissed. We'll let you all know when Richard's family and Nia finally make it to the city." she said with a smile, everyone else nodding and heading out to continue their own businesses once again, leaving just Emmeryn and Celes in the throne room in silence. Emmeryn broke it seconds later, asking a question she's had for a long while.

"Do you truly believe that Walhart will become an issue for us? What reason do we have to believe he will set our sights on us?"

"To be entirely honest my dear...yes." Celes admitted somberly. "When he was taking over my country the slogan he championed was 'Breaking the chain the gods have shackled us with'...almost all who live in Ylisse believe and worship Naga, as many in Valm did as well. In his eyes, this continent is just as worthy of conquest as he believes we shackle ourselves to the will of a god. And if he knows of how devote some Plegians are to Grima, they will be on his list as well."

"Then how do we truly prepare for a war against him?"

"At current moment...we can't." Celes frowned.

* * *

"And just after we had to give out the bad news about Plegia, now we get all this crap from back home." Cecil sighed as he walked alongside Chrom, both of them not having anything else to do for the day.

"Home? Last time I checked you are home." Chrom smirked.

"You know what I mean."

"Maybe...doesn't mean I can't tease you about a slip up."

"Sure sure. But put some practice in, that wasn't even close to being funny." Cecil smirked. "You keep that up and your firstborn won't even know what a joke is."

"Hey, I like to think I've got a good sense of humor."

"Yeah, right alongside Maribelle's." Cecil scoffed. "You can't even tell when I'm being sarcastic half the time, let alone you trying to find humor in Lissa or Celene's prank wars."

"Well..I...uh.." Chrom stammered, not being able to voice a comeback.

"See, can't even make any quick, snappy comebacks." Cecil laughed. "Anyways, we've got three new members, and we're back in Ylisstol...how about we get them used to the Shepherds?"

"_The Silver Lance _then?" Chrom raised an eyebrow. "Sounds good to me...but we've got a few hours to kill before it's dusk."

"Well…lance practice until then? Neither of us have practiced our lance techniques in a while."

"Loser buys drinks tonight?"

"Sounds fair, let's go."

* * *

"...so if I move my queen..here, and I put my knight here, what's your next move?"

It had been a few hours since the twins had settled into their new room, with both Robin and Raven finding things to entertain them with their free time. Robin, after perusing the library for little over an hour, had brought back a large stack of books ranging from magical concepts to history books, and at least one cheesy romance novel for Raven. Raven, on the other hand, had found several different strategy games and manuscripts, both of which the twins agreed would be great resources to think up new strategies.

Currently, both twins were playing with an old chess board that had been found hiding in one of the storage room. At the moment the score was tied, five to five, and neither of them were willing to give up until one had finally won two games in a row.

"Then I'd move this pawn to take the queen, the bishop will take the knight, aaaannndddd…" Robin smiled as he moved the queen several spaces away from the opposing king, which now had no chance of escaping. "Checkmate."

"Damn it, was hoping you didn't see that opening." Raven groaned as she smacked her head lightly against the table.

"Well you shouldn't have made it so obvious." Robin laughed. "So that makes it six to five, you sure you want to keep going?"

"No chance in hell I'm giving up now. It's time to tip the scales, dear brother." Raven smiled as she raised her head back up to look at Robin with a grin.

"Well then, let's see you try…" Robin started resetting the board before their door was opened by two grinning princes.

"Get up and get ready you two, we're going drinking." Chrom smiled as the twins looked at him. "And no, you don't have a choice."

"Standard Shepherd hazing, I'm sure you understand. And you two seem ready enough as it is, soo.." Cecil laughed as he walked over and yanked Raven up by her arm and started to drag her away, Chrom doing the same to Robin.

"Is this what we get for laughing at Lissa earlier?" Raven asked as her boots skidded along the ground.

"Probably...karma's a cruel mistress." Robin sighed.

"Oh it could be a lot worse you two, you should've seen what we did to haze Vaike in." Chrom smiled as they reached the entrance to the Shepherd's barracks.

"Ha, I'm pretty sure there's still some posters lying around from back then. Vaike was the talk of the town for over three months." Cecil laughed. "Now then, to _The Silver Lance_!"

"Interesting name for a bar." Raven commented as she was being dragged along.

"The owner was a former Pegasus Knight, she's actually the person who taught Phila everything she knows. She always carried an etched, silver lance into battle, and that same lance rests on the wall behind the bar." Cecil explained.

"A little incentive to patrons to not start anything inside." Chrom smiled.

"Have _you _ever started anything in the bar?" Robin questioned.

"Well…"

"Mr. Prince of all Ylisse has gotten his ass thrown out of the place at least twice. Both times were some drunk being a bit too loud with what he wished he could do with the Exalt..,or Lissa." Cecil explained, earning a glare from Chrom.

"They were both being overly explicit in the details...that said I'm not going to sit around and listen to people say what they want to do to my sisters." Chrom stated, trying to defend himself.

"Oh I didn't say you were wrong to do it...but the three broken chairs, two broken tables, the hole in the wall, and breaking some of the sections of the floor was overkill, Chrom." Cecil replied, giving him pointed look.

"Oh, so Prince Chrom has trouble keeping an eye on his strength then?" Raven giggled. "Never would've imagined. I've heard stories already about stone walls being busted open during training thanks to our dear prince."

"Oh dear Naga, that was supposed to be a secret." Chrom cringed at hearing the remark.

"Blame Lissa, she seems to get a kick out of messing with her big brother." Raven laughed once again as she and her brother were dragged out of the barracks.

* * *

"So, this is the place?" Robin asked as he and the others stood before a two story building with a simple sign hanging over the door, with the name _The Silver Lance_ painted onto it with silver paint. All in all, the place looked...unremarkable...on the outside at least. "I was honestly expecting more."

"It's not the prettiest of places, but she serves the best drinks in town." Chrom smiled as he looked at the bar. "I never really figured out why Irene wanted the place to be here, she easily could've got a place in one of the nicer districts." he shrugged.

"It's the cause of the people." Cecil said matter of factly. "You know how snobby some of the people in the upper districts can be, imagine how'd they act in this place with the way she runs it. Nah, here she gets all the people she wants to actually come in, from the common place citizens to whatever soldiers we still have in the city."

"She sounds like a people person." Raven smiled.

"She is, just don't get on her bad side." Cecil grinned as he walked towards the entrance. "Come on, everyone else should be here." he said as he pushed open the door and walked in, the overly loud chatting in the bar escaping out into the street, followed by a few jovial shouts aimed towards Cecil.

"Wait..everyone?" Robin asked.

"Oh yeah, all the Shepherds should be here. Except maybe Maribelle, she tends to stay away from places like this." Chrom smiled as he walked behind the twins and placed a hand on both of their backs, starting to push them towards the door and causing them to stumble inside.

Looking around them, the twins were amazed to see how busy the place was. The entire bar was packed with everyone from street stall merchants to city guards, and Robin swore he saw at least one Pegasus knight sitting at the bar if the armor was anything to go off of. Shouts of merriment and singing filled the whole place from several various sources around them, including one very bubbly Princess standing up on a stage near the back with a bard who was playing a lute to accompany the bar shanty she was singing. Near the stage, in one of the largest booths in the bar, was the entire Shepherds crew singing along with the princess in various stages of drunkenness. Cecil had joined them right as the others had walked in, joining in with the singing as Vaike handed him a mug of ale.

"Ah, I see Lissa's already having fun on her own." Chrom smiled as he walked in after the twins and looked over to the stage. "And from the sounds of it, Vaike's completely drunk at this point."

"Is he normally the first one?" Robin asked.

"Normally, he can down his mugs like a champ and does so anytime we're here." Chrom answered as they started walking.

"Who's likely to be the second drunk?" Raven asked.

"Miriel." Chrom answered. "She might seem a bit boorish due to how she acts, but she surprisingly like to drink." he answered as they reached the booth.

"HEY HEY!" Vaike yelled drunkenly. "NOW THE PAR…"

He couldn't finish his sentence as he was smacked behind the head by a parasol, the owner of said item smacking it against her palm as she glared at him as she sat near him.

"Quiet down you boorish oaf, they're standing right in front of us." Maribelle huffed before grabbing a glass of red wine sitting on the table in front of her and took a sip.

"Maribelle, I see you decided to join us today." Chrom smiled as he took a seat next to Sully at the table, joined by Robin and Raven sitting in the remaining two seats next to him.

"Lissa asked me to join us tonight...and I will be going home for the next month and a half to help my father, so I decided that coming for one night wouldn't hurt."

"Good thing too, she's been able to keep Vaike from shouting our ears off our heads." Sully snickered as she took a swig from her own mug.

"He could be worse." Kellam said quietly as he sat next to his fiancée.

"Well, whatever the case at least you all finally made it." Sumia smiled

"And we were wondering where you've been anyway, we've been waiting around half an hour." Stahl asked while eating a turkey leg.

"Had to find these two, turns out they were hiding in their room." Chrom smiled as he pointed his thumb towards the twins.

"In our defense, we were having fun playing chess." Robin said as he grabbed one of the full mugs from the table. "Well, I was anyways since I won."

"You only won because our two lovely princes came barging in and stopped us from continuing." Raven scoffed as she grabbed her own mug and took a large gulp from it. "I would've won eventually."

"Ha, keep dreaming." Robin laughed.

"Hey, we didn't really say it before when we were back home, but welcome to the Shepherds you two." Sully smiled as she looked at the twins and raised her mug into the air, followed by everyone else as they shouted "Welcome".

"Thank you, all of you, truly." Robin smiled. "It's nice to know that we found ourselves with such an interesting band of people, and not stuck with some bandits or something."

"Way to kill it Robin." Raven snorted. "In layman's terms, we're glad to be here and promise we won't get you killed."

"And what about being injured?" Cecil questioned with a grin.

"No promises." Raven smirked back, gaining a round of laughter from the Shepherds.

"Oh, don't forget Cecil.." Chrom smiled after the laughter died down. "I believe you have to buy the drinks tonight."

"Yeah yeah." Cecil scoffed. "You cheated with that leg sweep anyways."

"Did not."

An argument carried on for the next hour on if it was fine to use a leg sweep while practicing with lances, a debate that saw the entire Shepherds join in. As the Shepherds argued in their own friendly way, the twins smiled at the banter, both thinking the exact same thing. They'd only been here for a day, they barely had any memories to speak of, but they knew one thing.

_"This is our home." _the two thought before joining in on the fun.


	7. A Royal Meeting

**Alright, first true update in a long while. Won't give a guarantee, but I hope to have another chapter up by this time next week. The chapter might be short, but I hope you all enjoy it just the same :)**

* * *

Pain. Pain is all Cecil could feel as he slowly started to rouse from his overly deep slumber. He groaned heavily as he pushed himself up into a sitting position off the...stone floor? Risking the possible migraine from the sudden appearance of light flooding into his eyes, Cecil opened them to find himself in the, thankfully, dimly lit barracks of the Shepherds, with his friends scattered around in general states of restless sleep.

"_Auugghhh my head...how much did I drink last night?_" Cecil thought to himself as she slowly tried to stand up, having to grab a hold of a table that he was next to to keep himself standing upright on his wobbly legs.

Glancing around, he took count of who all was scattered around the area. Vaike was sleeping upside down on one of the table, his head balancing him on the floor. Kellam was, to Cecil's surprise, easily seen slumped against a wall in the corner. Miriel had her face plastered into one of her many books on one of the tables, snoring somewhat peacefully. Sumia was comfortable laying on one of the benches next to one of the walls, with Maribelle sleeping on the bench next to her...an odd site, and one that he would never bring up in fear of being wacked over the head with her parasol for daring to say she had not slept in an actually bed. Sully was slumped against the spear rack near some of the training dummies, a spear clutched tight in her right hand. Stahl was grumbling about being hungry on the table next to Cecil, Virion sleeping on the other side of the same table. Chrom and Lissa were, not surprisingly, nowhere in sight. Cecil's best bet was that Frederick had carried them both to their rooms before going to sleep himself. His sister, on the other hand, was slumped on the floor next to him snoring loudly. And on the table a few feet away from Cecil, both Robin and Raven were sleeping peacefully with their hoods covering their heads.

"_Good to see we had a good time last night._" Cecil chuckled to himself as he held his head in pain. "_Hope mom hasn't been waiting for me to bring Virion too long._" he sighed as he walked over to Virion and smacked his hand on his back, causing the drunk archer to jump up in surprise.

"It's just me, Virion. Quiet, there's no reason to wake the others just yet." Cecil whispered as he helped the archer to stand up. "My mother asked me to bring you to meet her, we shouldn't keep them waiting."

"Ah...but so early in the morning?" Virion slurred the question.

"Trust me, you'll understand when we get to the throne room." Cecil chuckled quietly while he led a stumbling Virion out of the Barracks.

"But what of my appearance, how can I meet the fair lady in such a...state?" Virion asked as he looked himself over, surprisingly sobering up fairly quickly, finding his clothing to be highly disheveled and wrinkled.

"It's fine, the fair lady won't care." Cecil smiled as he walked off towards the main castle, Virion quickly walking after Cecil while trying to fix his hair. "I promise you Virion, she already knows a lot about you."

"Really? I've only been with the group for a few short days, surely she hasn't gotten a chance to truly know me." Virion complained as he was able to get his hair in a fairly presentable look.

"You'll find out soon enough my friend." Cecil smiled as they made their way into the main throne room, their ears immediately catching the sound of soft singing coming from a lone Celes standing near the throne.

"_Vos ei tristia redderentur_

_Fremuerunt bella nostra_

_Nihil manducare_

_Nullum erit nobis_

_Superesse faciemus_

_Non usque in finem fugere nos"_

"Is that...ancient Valmese?" Virion questioned as Celes singing came to an end.

"It is indeed, Sir Virion. My family has long been taught the language and songs of old to remember the past." Celes said as she turned to them with a smirk. "Cecil, I do believe I taught you better than to not announce yourself when coming into a room, especially this one."

"Sorry Mother, I thought it would be better to allow you to finish first, that is one of your favorite songs after all." Cecil smiled in reply.

"Well, at least I taught you some manners." Celes chuckled. "Now then, onto more pressing matters. Besides the obvious facts that the two of you are clearly hung over…" she smiled, causing Cecil and Virion to chuckle nervously, "I believe introductions are not in order, isn't that right...Duke Virion?"

Virion paled at Celes words and stammered out a reply. "M..My good lady, I believe you are mistaken. I am but a humble archer, traveling the lands in search of my true love."

"Do you take me for a fool, Duke?" Celes smiled. "I do recall you running around in your mother's rose garden that was on your family's estate, claiming how you'd be the _Archeriest of Archers _and find your truest love while defeating a dragon in her honor."

"I...h..how do you know about that?" Virion visibly sweat-dropped at the mention of his childhood.

Celes scoffed at the notion, walking down to stand in front of the hidden noble while saying, "Clearly you don't remember me Virion, has my growing age really made me that unrecognizable? If so I think I could easily go home without Walhart breaking down my door."

Virion gaped as he got a look at the woman in front of her, a wild blush of embarrassment appearing on his face as he recognized who was standing in front of him, quickly dropping to a single knee, with a curse under his breath, as a show of respect.

"Queen Celes!? I thought you had been killed during Walhart's siege of Valm?"

Celes scoffed as she lightly slapped the back of Virion's head. "I am no more dead than you are. Now stand up, Virion, I am a queen no longer, nor do I hold any title that is worthy of you dropping to your knees in respect."

"But…"

"No buts." Celes stated calmly. "Now stand up." she demanded, with Virion quickly doing so, a look of recognition overtaking his face.

"But wait...if you...Cecil?" Virion quickly turned to face the former prince, a wide smile on his face.

"Took you long enough." Cecil smiled with a nod. "Celene is alive as well, she was with us last night but you were too enthralled with the wine to notice her."

"Oh this is a wondrous occasion! My parents never thought we'd get the chance to repay the favors we owe your family. We will have to spend time catching up later, milady!" Virion smiled widely, though it quickly turned dower. "But as happy as I am to see you alive, why have you summoned me here this morning?" he asked, the reply coming from a now frowning Celes.

"Virion...what are you doing here?"

"What do you mean, Lady C…"

"Why are you in Ylisse, Virion? Why are you not at home in Rosenne, watching over your people? Why is the future Duke of Rossene currently across the ocean in Ylisse, standing in front of me right now?" Celes asked sternly, causing a gaping Virion to look down in shame.

"I..I...I'm afraid they are no longer my people, Lady Celes." Virion stated sadly, Celes puling in a sharp breath at his tone. "They are now vassels of the Valmese Empire as of two months ago...I fled for my life as they were knocking down the door to my family's castle. Thankfully the citizens were not hurt during their siege, as I had asked them to not fight back if Valm turned hostile. However...I am the last member of my family...Walhart personally executed my parents...and my younger sister..."

Silence filled the throne room after Virion had said his piece, a normally calm Celes seething in apparent rage.

"...damn it...Damn it…" she cursed silently. "DAMN HIM!" she screamed as she swept her arm to the side, unknowingly releasing a large Thunder spell that slammed against the far wall, scorching it black. "He better hope Duma will grant him some mercy in the afterlife, I sure as hell won't for as long as that bastard lives!" she screamed, not noticing both Virion and Cecil shrinking back at her outburst.

"Mom, snap out of it." Cecil said just loud enough that she could hear. "I know you're mad, and I know Lady Emily was your closest friend...but there isn't anything we can do about it right now."

Celes breathed heavily, sighing as she held her head down and tears began to fall from her now closed eyes.

"I know...I know dear." she cried softly as Cecil walked over to comfort her, Virion standing sadly in front of them.

"I know it's of small importance, Lady Celes...but I would like to say that my mother never believed you had died, ever insisting that you were alive and well somewhere. She held onto that belief until the end...she even yelled at Walhart as she was to be executed, screaming that he'd fear for his life when you came back to skin him alive." Virion said with only the slightest of smiles, hear a small laugh from Celes.

"That sounds so much like her...I wish I could see her one last time." Celes sighed as she tried to wipe away any lingering tears, putting on as much of a confidant look as she could.

"So do I, milady." Virion frowned. "...you asked me why I am here, I shall give you a true answer. I am here to seek help...help to reclaim my home, and if there is any possibility I'd like to ask _you _for that help."

"That's not an easy thing to ask for, Virion." Cecil stated, scratching the back of his head. "We aren't in any position to help, especially with everything going on with Plegia at the moment."

"Yes of course...but, I've the feeling that he will come for this land eventually." Virion said somberly. "His apparent need to conquer everything will…"

"Lead him straight for Ylisse, Plegia, and Regna Ferox." Celes finished for him. "Of course he will, I've been telling Emmeryn this would happen eventually. Virion, do you know anything of what he might be planning?"

"Unfortunately no, I was only able to hide long enough to see my family's demise before I had to flee on a boat for Ylisse." Virion frowned, but gave a quick smirk immediately after. "Thankfully, I have an inside woman taking care of getting information for me."

Celes gave a quick laugh, "Let me guess, could it be a certain pink haired, young woman with an adorable wyvern following her around?"

"The one and only! Cherche is thankfully alive and well, and so is the not so cuddly Minerva. She is hiding in the outskirts of Rosanne and spying on Walhart's forces whenever she can." Virion smiled proudly. "She will be sending me whatever information she can obtain, information I will gladly give to you of course, Lady Celes."

"Thank you, Virion. It's good news to hear we might have some regular updates on the situation over there." Celes smiled. "The loss of your family will always follow us, but we will make sure their unjust passing won't be forgiven."

"And until we get to a point in time that we can do that, the Shepherds will be counting on you to give some ranged support." Cecil gave a small smile at Virion.

"Of course my fine princely friend! The archerest of archers will be yours to command until the day is won!" Virion smiled widely.

"Great, then first order of the day is helping get the Shepherds up, do note they won't be happy about it." Cecil chuckled. "Is there anything else you need for the moment, mother?"

"No, I've gotten what I need for the moment dear." Celes shook her head with a smile. "However, Virion, would you be willing to come back here later today? I would like you to be here when I talk to Emmeryn in regards to your situation."

"Of course my dear lady, just send someone for me and I will head this way immediately."

"Thank you. Now go have fun waking the others up." Celes smiled as she shooed them away with her hands. "Oh, and be nice to Cordelia on your date today, Cecil." she teased, causing her son to groan loudly.

"It's not a date, I just….never mind, where did you hear that anyways?"

"Oh dear, do you really think Sumia can keep herself from gossiping about such things." Celes laughed.

"Ughh, I'll have to get her back for this later." Cecil groaned as he started to walk away.

"Ah, young love." Virion chuckled. "Perhaps I can give you some pointers…"

"Not needed, Virion." Cecil quickly cut him off, causing Virion and Celes to laugh. He turned around and smirked at Virion. "Alright, for that remark _you_ get to wake up Maribelle."

"Ah, but you give me such an easy task as a punishment." Virion smirked.

"Oh, you'll see." Cecil smiled smugly.

* * *

Cecil tried not to fall off the edge of the table as he continued laughing like a madman, Virion holding his head in pain as you could see a visible lump forming on the top of his head, and Maribelle fusing over him while she used a healing staff, the same one that had caused the lump to form in the first place mind you, to try and stop the possible concussion.

What happened, you might ask? Well….

* * *

"So I'm to wake the fair Maribelle then?" Virion asked as he and Cecil started to rouse the other members of the Shepherds. Groaning and mumbling was heard all around them as Cecil tried shaking Sumia awake.

"Yep, she's all yours hotshot." Cecil chuckled before shaking Sumia a bit harder. "Come on, Sumia, up and at 'em."

He received a grumble in reply, Sumia turning her head away from him with a small pout. Cecil shook his head with a smirk, grinning as he all of a sudden spoke just loud enough for Sumia to hear him, "Oh, Chrom, good to see you up. Mind carrying Sumia to an actual bed, she doesn't want to wake up."

Sumia shot up from her partial daze, a panicked look on her face as she tried to deny everything.

"No need Captain, I'm wide...awake." Sumia said as she looked around, finding that Chrom was nowhere in sight. "Wha...ooohhh." she slumped and pouted at Cecil. "That was mean, Cecil."

"I'll apologize later with breakfast, now up and at 'em, we've got things to do today before I dismiss you all." he said with a smile.

"Oh sure, and your date with Cordy has nothing to do with it." Sumia giggled as she slowly stood up, wobbling for a second before catching her bearings.

"Not a date." Cecil groaned.

"Sure it's not." Sumia smiled.

"Whatever...that's everyone besides Maribelle, let's watch the 'master' at work shall we." Cecil said as he turned his attention to Virion, who was trying to wake Maribelle up. It only took a few seconds of light prodding from Virion, and some unheard words, for Maribelle to jump up defensively, her mend rod suddenly in her hand from the table and colliding with Virion's head, sending him crashing to the floor and causing Cecil to fall over in a fit of laughter.

* * *

"Al...alright…" Cecil snickered a few minutes later, after finally finishing his laughing fit, Virion still holding his head but thankfully no longer sporting the large lump. "Right, everyone listen up! You're on leave for the next month, make sure to enjoy your time off but try to keep your skills sharp, no telling what we'll come across on our way to Ferox. Besides that, help me clean this place up real quick and you can all be on your way."

The Shepherds cheered before getting to work cleaning the barracks, which was slightly trashed due to the previous night. Cecil hopped in to help as well, with Sumia joining him to finish cleaning up the tables.

"So, about your date…" Sumia started.

"Not a...fuck it, not winning this." Cecil sighed.

"Good, you actually learn." Sumia giggled. "Cordelia's favorite tea is White, and some pastries on the side wouldn't hurt either." she smiled as she grabbed a few plates and stacked them up.

"I've already got that part covered, Sumia, I don't need advice." Cecil smirked.

"Sure you don't, just know that if you mess up somehow I'll hear about it."

"Uh huh, sure you will." Cecil smirked as they finished up the table. "Oh by the way, what was that book you were reading, was it A Winter Moons Night?"

"Yes, I just got to the halfway point and it's getting so good." Sumia smiled.

"Oh, good. The main character is a werewolf, by the way. That's the secret that keeps getting brought up throughout the book." Cecil smiled as he grabbed the stack of plates and started walking away from a now frozen Sumia.

"Wha..wha...what? Why would you spoil that!?" Sumia yelled.

"Payback for telling my mother about my meet up with Cordelia." Cecil smiled at her before walking away.

"Damnit!" Sumia groaned as she left to help the others, hoping to herself that Cecil was lying.


	8. Tea Time

A loud groan escaped from Celene as she unceremoniously crashed onto her bed face first, somehow having spent the last two hours helping the Shepherds clean the barracks. Every time they thought they had finished cleaning everything, something else just jumped out at them from the apparent shadows. After _finally_ finishing the cleaning nightmare, her brother had thankfully dismissed everyone to a unanimous cheer from the others.

"I hate cleaning." Celene's muffled voice said to no one in particular, and was barely heard by her best friend who had crashed on a chair next to her bed.

"Uggh, thank Naga we don't have to do that again anytime soon." Lissa grumbled lazily. "I thought it would never end! Where did those rusty swords even come from!?"

Celene rolled slightly so her head was facing Lissa, no longer muffling her voice. "When all fails just blame Vaike, I'm sure they were something he was supposed to do anyways."

"Hear hear." Lissa lazilty agreed. "How long do we have?"

"An hour." Celene replied as she stuffed her face back into her pillow.

"Wish we had longer, I want a nap." Lissa complained as she curled up into the chair. "But we can't miss this opportunity, our plans could come to ruin if it doesn't go right."

"Are we even doing anything about it?"

"Yep, we're making sure any of the noble ladies don't get involved." Lissa snickered lightly. "If we don't stop them, their date would be ruined barely ten minutes into it."

Celene just laughed. "I don't know, I think Cordelia would fight them off somehow, I heard from Sumia that while you guys were gone that she broke almost ten lances training."

"Pfft, probably. But where's the fun for us if we just let her take care of things." Lissa smiled. "Now then, let Operation Birdwatchers begin...in an hour."

"And let's hope to Naga we're the only one's doing this." Celene sighed before lulling for a light nap.

* * *

After helping out the others for what seemed like forever, mostly thanks to the plentiful amount of things Vaike forgot to do, Kellam had finally left the barracks and was hoping to spend the remaining day with his soon to be wife...only to be summoned to the royal study by Chrom. Slightly annoyed, although he would never admit it, he quickly made his way up to the study and stopped before the studies door. Sighing to nobody but himself, he knocked on the door.

"Kellam, come in please." Chrom's voice echoed through the door, quickly followed by Kellam walking in and giving Chrom, who was sitting at one of the desks, a quick bow.

"What can I do for you, Captain?"

Chrom shook his head with a chuckle, "I need your help, Kellam. And no formalities, I'm just Chrom remember."

Kellam smiled before continuing, "Alright fine Chrom, what can I help you with? I was looking forward to spending time with Sully."

"And I'm sorry for taking you away from her, but this is something only you can do efficiently." Chrom said as he stood up and walked around the desk. "I need you to trail Cecil for the day."

Kellam gave Chrom the most questioning look he could muster, before asking, "Why?"

"My friend, our dear Cecil...has a date!" Chrom said happily. "That daft bastard finally got the gall to ask a girl out for tea, and of all the noble ladies in Ylisse he asked Cordelia to have tea with him. I am _not _going to lose this opportunity to win our bet…" he came to a sudden halt, "...I mean make sure that they have a wonderful time with no distractions."

Kellam just gave him a smile in response. "Didn't hear a word, Chrom. So...you just want me to tail them and make sure no one gets in their way?"

"Exactly, I know my sister and Celene are going to be up to something, be it for the better or worse, and I wouldn't be surprised if some of the other Shepherds had the same idea. You are the only one who can go unnoticed whenever they want to, meaning you're the perfect person to keep an eye on them _and _thwart any would be attempts to ruin their day." Chrom said with a smiling nod. "Of course, I'm not asking you to do this for free…"

A small satchel was tossed towards Kellam, who caught it out of the air as Chrom continued.

"I think that should be just enough for two people to have a couple of the best dinners in Ylisse." Chrom smiled as Kellam opened the bag and took a look inside.

"More than enough...consider it done Chrom." Kellam smiled at him as he put the satchel on his belt.

* * *

"Come on Sully, how can you not be interested in this?" Sumia questioned as she pulled on Sully's arm, though not getting her to budge at all.

"Hey, I am interested in it." Sully grumbled as she pulled her arm out of Sumia's grip. "But I ain't gonna go spy on them just to see how things go. I'm sure I'll hear about it after the fact anyways." she said as she gave Sumia a rough pat on the head before walking off.

"Aww, I didn't want to do this alone." Sumia sighed, slumping her shoulders while not noticing someone walking up to her.

"And what, pray tell, were you not wanting to do alone?" said someone asked, causing Sumia to almost jump out of her boots in surprise.

"AHH!" Sumia screamed as she swung around to face whoever startled her, coming face to face with Frederick. "Oh gods, don't do that Frederick."

"Er, I suppose I should have announced my presence. My apologies, Sumia." Frederick winced.

"It's fine, just..." Sumia sighed, clutching her chest to try and calm herself. "Just please don't do that again."

"Noted, now back to what I had asked…"

"Oh, that. I was just lamenting the fact that I've got no one to help me spy on Cordelia's date today."

"Lady Cordelia has a date?" Frederick questioned surprisingly. "I would have expected her to never agree to one unless it was Prince Chrom who had asked her."

"Had it been a month ago you'd be right, but as it stands now I believe her heart is beginning to shift." Sumia smiled.

"A good thing too I suppose, your feelings for my liege might have caused a rift between you two." Frederick said with a slight smile, Sumia becoming beet red from his statement.

"Uhhh...you knew about that?" Sumia asked timidly.

"I believe the only one who doesn't know about it is Prince Chrom, Sumia." Frederick answered flatly. "You aren't very subtle about your feelings."

"Oh…"

"Regardless, I would say that spying on her date isn't the best thing for a close friend to do, Sumia. It is a bit of an invasion of privacy is it not?"

"Coming from you, Frederick, that's rich." Sumia said with whatever confidence she could muster.

"I...uh, suppose I…" Frederick stammered for a moment, before coughing into his fist. "Perhaps I shouldn't be the one to say such things, however that does not mean the statement itself is wrong. Why are you so interested in her date anyways, are you wary of the person she agreed to go with?"

"As if, I know he'll take care of her. I'm more worried about her not being honest with herself. She's been thinking she's not worth his time or anything...she's told me that more times than I can count if I'm being honest." Sumia sighed.

"I suppose that would be an issue...who asked her to a date?"

"It was Cecil." Sumia answered, receiving a tight jawed, silent response from Frederick.

It took a few seconds to regain his composure, once he did his tone was drastically different. "With that information, I suppose I shall accompany you to keep an eye on them."

"Er...what?" Sumia questioned.

"I said I shall accompany you. My liege has commanded me to take the day off, as such I have not much else to do besides training, so I would happily accompany you, Sumia."

"...you just want to keep an eye on Cecil because you can't stay by the Captain's side don't you?"

"I have no idea what you're talking about." Frederick diflected. "Now then, shall we prepare to keep an eye on them? We must find something else to wear I would assume, they'd notice our presence in our normal attire."

"Well...I suppose it's better than nothing." Sumia sighed as she walked off, Frederick close behind.

* * *

"Why do I feel like something, just _something_ is going to go wrong today?" Cecil questioned no one but himself as he was changing up his outfit. He forgoed the cape, any form of armor that he normally wore, and Goldbrand thinking there was no reason to be prepared for an attack in the middle of the Ylissetol. In the end, thanks to Richard's advice, he ended up sticking with a lightweight red tunic, a pair of more casual pants, and an old pair of leather riding boots had hidden away.

"Knowing your group of friends, I think you know exactly why my boy." Richard laughed as Cecil finished putting on his boots, grabbing a pair of gloves and putting them on next.

"That's what I'm afraid of, Richard. This is just supposed to be a friendly meet-up, not some big shindig." Cecil complained with a sigh as he started towards the door, Richard moving out of the way before following him out. "I feel like _someone _is going to be following me."

"If that someone is your sister, then I'd say it's a good chance you're right. Maybe she'll even drag Lissa and Sumia along with her." Richard chuckled. "Don't worry about it too much, your friends and family care too much about you to ruin your date with Cordelia."

"It's not a…"

"My boy, my first interaction with my wife was asking her to join me for tea at the castle garden, back when I was nothing more than a squire working for your grandfather's retainer. You may say it's nothing more than a friendly get together, but it could lead to something greater than just that down the road. Who knows, maybe Lady Cordelia doesn't just see this as what you think it is."

"I wouldn't think so, I think she was finally getting over her crush on Chrom just a few weeks ago. Do you really think she'd see this as nothing more than a friendly get together? I mean...being honest, I inadvertently caused her dream to crumble in the first place."

"Stranger things have happened, Cecil. But, that's something you will have to decide in the future. Maybe this will have an adverse effect on you, _maybe _you'll be the one chasing after her." Richard grinned as they parted ways, Cecil shaking his head with a smile before making his way towards the pegasus knights barracks.

* * *

Over in the pegasus knights barracks, it was a strangely calm day. All flight routes for the following week had been scheduled, the pegusi had already been groomed, all supplies were accounted for, the weapons had already been polished...the only problem was that all that had been done before any of the Pegasus Knights had woken up. Well. all except one anyways. Which lead to a few curious knights to talk among themselves

"So...does anyone think Cordelia seems a bit...off today?" A pegasus knight named May, asked several of her fellow knights inside the barracks. "She's normally on top of things anyways...but this is a bit much."

"You don't say?" a sarcastic knight, Lily, replied, pointing over to Cordelia, who was sitting in the corner fussing over her hair. "When was the last time she ever fussed over her hair that much? She didn't even worry about it this much during the Exalt's birthday, and that was one of the most anticipated dates of the year."

"Yeah...you're right. I wonder what's gotten into her." May replied, a slightly concerned look overcoming her as she looked over to Cordelia.

"Hmmm...I think I've got an idea." the third member of the small group, Laura, smiled before sauntering over to Cordelia.

Upon reaching her, Laura quickly snatched the brush Cordelia was using away from her and started to braid her hair into a long ponytail. "If you keep working your hair like this you're likely to lose it, Cordelia. Let me handle this, I wouldn't want little miss perfect to go bald." Laura smiled, not seeing Cordelia frowning at the nickname before sighing.

"I...thank you, Laura."

"Think nothing of it, in return you can tell me what you're all worked up about." Laura giggled, noticing Cordelia tensing up. "No need to do that, it can't be anything that scandalous, can it?"

"No... no it's nothing, I'm just going to see my parents today and…"

"No you're not, you mentioned they were headed up to the northern border to work on a trade deal just two days ago."

"...Uh." Cordelia started stammering, embarrassed about being caught in her lie.

"How about I make a guess, and you confirm if it's true." Laura smiled. "Hmm...lets see...did a certain Prince ask you to join him for tea today?"

"No, Prince Chrom has done nothing of the sort. But...tea is involved." Cordelia answered, Laura noticing an absence of her old emotions in even saying the Prince's name.

Laura grinned slightly evilly, "Oh, then that must mean it was a certain red-haired Lord." she said as she noticed Cordelia fidgeting slightly. "My my, I didn't think I'd see the day when you'd get over your crush on Prince Chrom."

"That's not…"

"No, no lies, Cordelia." Laura said sternly, before looking behind her at the rest of the group that was trying to listen in and motioning to them to come over. "Cordelia, I've…we've heard about the incident at the Exalt's birthday."

"Yeah, it wasn't a big rumor, but there was talk that you had been seen crying during the party." May said next.

"But no one knew why, it's not widely known about your little crush on the Prince. But we know, and we know that the Prince was dancing and enjoying the party with Sumia for almost the entire party...some say that he came in from the balcony with her before their first dance." Lily frowned. "It's kinda obvious why you'd be crying."

"But, we did hear that Cecil was your prince in shining armor that night, sweeping you off your feet and spending the entire night with you and dancing away." Laura smiled. "Be honest with us, Cordelia. We've all heard you mumble his name once and a while, you seem to daydream a lot more, and now you're fussing over your hair more than you ever have before on a day that Cecil has invited you to join him for tea…"

"Let's be honest, it's basically a date." May giggled.

"I suppose it is, yes." Laura smiled, the smile growing wider as she noticed Cordelia's face slowly turning the same color as her hair. "So, Cordelia, has your red-haired knight in shining armor stolen your heart?"

"Umm...I...I don't...may…" Cordelia stammered, this being one of the few times the girls had seen her lose her composure in such a manner. Though their mirth was short lived.

"Hello! Anybody in here?" the familiar voice of Cecil echoed inside the barracks.

Cordelia, thankful for the timely interruption, quickly got up and headed towards the main entrance, leaving behind her the quiet giggles from her fellow Knights.

Composing herself as best she could, she somewhat happily pushed open the door leading to the main entrance, only to find Cecil almost being trampled by a loose black Pegasus.

"Hey!" Cecil yelled with a smile, dodging a small charge by the pegasus. "Calm down, Lani, it's good to see you too." he said as he grabbed the pegasus by the snout with his left hand and happily petted it for several seconds. Lani, content with the attention she had received, snorted before lightly headbutting Cecil's chest, one of the few signs of affection she's shown to anyone at the barracks.

"Let me guess, you knocked down the gate to your pen again?" Cecil questioned the pegasus, getting a quick snort in reply. "I swear, what am I going to do with you? Especially when you give everyone trouble."

"I say we let you take her, she only listens to you anyways." Cordelia smiled as she walked over to them. "Well, she listens to me as well, but I've still got Artemis."

Cecil gave a smile to Cordelia, not noticing her cheeks become just slightly red. "I'd take her, but I don't think she'd like how prim and proper they are to the royal horses. Your habit of breaking out of your pen wouldn't be as accepted as it is here." he told Lani, who almost had a look of defiance in her eyes as the other pegasus knights walked in to the entrance.

"Looks like Lani is out again." May sighed. "I'll take care of her, you two go enjoy your date." she smiled before grabbing Lani's halter and leading her away, snickering at Cordelia's blushing face and Cecil facepalming.

"Don't worry, we won't tease you too much." Lily laughed as the two recomposed themselves. "But if we hear she didn't have a good time today…"

"Yeah yeah, I'll be getting talked to by all of you." Cecil smiled with a wave of his hand. "By the way, are you ready to go, Cordelia?"

"Huh...oh, yes." She replied with a nod.

"Great, we can…"

"Oh no you're not." Lily smiled. "There is no way we are letting you leave while still wearing that armor, Cordelia. Give us just a moment, Cecil." she said as she and Laura grabbed Cordelia by the arms and dragged her away, not listening to her protests about wanting to keep something a secret.

Cecil, now alone by himself, just scoffed at what had happened, thinking to himself that the pegasus knights were just as nonsensical as the Shepherds were. After waiting for several minutes, Cordelia was pushed out the door the three had disappeared to, now lacking any armor that had been on her person, leaving her only in her red riding dress and boots. She was strangely shy as she walked back over to him, sighing to herself as if wanting to get this over with.

Cecil just shook his head and smiled slightly down at her, "Good to see they're just as intense about an outfit as some of the Shepherds are. So, unless they're going to come back out and drag you back in for something, are you ready to go?"

Cordelia, slightly taken aback by him apparently not noticing what she thought was one of her biggest flaws, only answered him with a question. "You...you aren't going to say anything?"

"About what? I mean you look nice without the armor on, if that's what you mean."

Cordelia blushed at the complement, "No, I mean what's...different about me."

Different? Cecil looked her over, trying to find what she was talking about. It did take him several moments to think that the chestplate she had been wearing did seem to be a bit...larger...ah.

"_I wouldn't think she'd be...I guess embarrassed about that. Wonder if that's a sore spot for her?" _Cecil laughed to himself before smiling. "I suppose I see one thing that's different, your hair is tied up in a nice braid. Besides that I don't see anything wrong with you." he said to her, trying to be as sensitive as he could about a topic he believed she had a hard time with, for whatever reason.

"Are you…" Cordelia started to ask, slightly bewildered.

"Completely sure?" Cecil finished for her. "Yes, I am."

"Oh…" she relied shyly, before shaking her head. "Uh...are you ready to go?"

Cecil's response was to smile and hold his arm out to her, which she happily locked her arm with his before they walked out the door, not noticing the three knights watching them.

"So...should we go spy on them?" May asked.

"I thought that was the plan already." Laura smiled as the three of them quickly walked out the door behind Cecil and Cordelia.

* * *

"Aha! There they are." Lissa exclaimed happily as she noticed her newly dubbed "love birds", walking out of the pegasus knights barracks and heading down the street to a small cafe that she and Emma loved going to in the area. A location suggested to Cecil by none other than herself of course. And the fact that it was right next to a park they could hide in if they needed to was just a bonus.

"So, what's the plan here? We just follow them around and trip any nobles who try to interrupt them?" Celene asked as she looked at her current outfit which slightly matched Lissa's, consisting of just plain clothes to try and help them blend in.

"Yep, or do as much as we can." Lissa replied with a nod before she was just about to follow after her targets, before noticing the pegasus knights poking their heads out of the barracks door, before following Cecil and Cordelia down the road. "Great, now we have to deal with them as well...I hope they're just trying to watch."

"I doubt those three will try and ruin their date." Celene frowned as they started after them. "Didn't you see Cordelia, with how her hair was braided and she was _not_ wearing her armor for once? You know how she is about her chest size, there's no way she'd take her breastplate off unless she was forced to."

"Well...I suppose you're right." Lissa frowned. "Let's keep an eye on them though, I'm not too sure about what they're doing."

"Fine by me." Celene nodded as they quickly headed off down the road, not noticing Kellam as he walked by them.

Kellam smiled slightly with a shake of his head, "Of course those two would be following them around. Guess Chrom was right to have me make sure no one interrupted." he said to himself before following after the ever growing group.

* * *

"Oh...where are they? I thought I heard Cecil say he was taking her to the White Lotus." Sumia sighed to herself as she and Frederick walked around the streets of Ylisstol in the best disguises they could think of, which like Lissa and Celene, were just simple clothes with their hair done just differently enough that someone would second guess who they were looking at.

"I doubt he would take her there, Sumia." Frederick replied to her ramblings. "It's too upper class, he'd be recognized instantly and any hope of a peaceful afternoon with Cordelia would be shattered, be it a lady from the upper class trying to slither her way in, or a noble trying to convince him to marry their daughter."

"Well then where do you think he'd take her?"

"I would suppose...Lys Bleu." Frederick answered while rubbing his chin. "It's...I suppose it's a favorite of the Exalt and her family, fairly out of the way so nobles rarely frequent it, and it's right next to one of the several parks in the lower district."

"Sounds like the perfect place for a calm date...let's…" Sumia stopped herself as she noticed two girls quickly sneaking down the street, two girls that looked very much like Lissa and Celene. "Frederick, do you think Lissa and Celene would sneak out to follow Cecil around?"

"On a normal day, no I wouldn't. But on a day that he is on a date, and as far as I'm aware the first one that he initiated…"

"Let's follow them, they're probably right behind Cecil and Cordelia." Sumia said as she took off after the two princesses, Frederick following close behind.

Neither noticed, however, that they almost ran head first into Kellam as he walked into an intersection that the girls had gone down, only barely jumping back in time to not get trampled by Frederick. While he was not in his armor, Kellam still had no desire to get run over by a charging Frederick.

"Oh great." Kellam sighed as he regained his balance. "Sumia and Frederick too? I'm asking Chrom for a bonus when this is over." he sighed as he followed after them.

* * *

"Cecil, you never told me where we're going." Cordelia stated as the two of them continued to walk down one of the main streets in Ylisstol, with Cecil giving her a smile back along with his answer.

"Of course I didn't, it wouldn't be much of a surprise if you knew."

"Maybe I don't like surprises." Cordelia gave him a playful smirk.

"Well, I think you'll like this one." he smiled before he started walking significantly faster as they entered one of the more upper class sections of the city.

"Are you that eager to get there, Cecil?" Cordelia laughed as she was jerked forwards by Cecil.

"No, nothing of the sort. If anything I wish the walk was a bit longer, I don't have the chance to see you all that often." Cecil replied, Cordelia's face flushing from the statement. "I am, however, worried about who we might run across while in this area."

"Why? Is there someone you don't want to run into?" Cordelia frowned.

"More like _many_ people I don't want to run into. This area is frequented by a lot of upper class nobles...and a lot of them want me to take their daughter as my wife." Cecil grimaced, with Cordelia's frown becoming worse than before. "If we're lucky, we can…"

"Lord Cecil, is that you my boy?" a voice called out to them, Cecil having to fight off every urge to grab Cordelia and run away as he heard that voice. That voice belonged to a noble he just _**hated**_ having to deal with.

Putting on the fakest smile he could, Cecil turned to the rotund noble to greet him. He knew there was no getting out of this easily. "Lord Bahran, it's a pleasure to see you." he lied through his teeth.

"As it is to see you. How have things been lately?" Bahran asked as he slightly bounced over to them.

"It's been busy, with the bandit situations south of here. The Shepherds have finally just gotten a chance to relax."

"Oh, very good. You all do a service to this city the guards certainly don't." Bahran scoffed. "And if I may ask, who is this darling woman you have on your arm?"

"Cordelia Milina Mordren." Cordelia introduced herself with a slight curtsy. "I'm a close friend of Cecil's"

"And one of the best Pegasus Knights of this generation." Cecil gave a genuine smile this time. "We were just on our way to grab some tea and catch up, I've not been able to see her in well over a month."

"Ah, very good. A pleasure to meet you, Lady Cordelia." Bahran gave a small bow. "Speaking of a fine lady, have you considered my proposal with my daughter, Lord Cecil? I know she's been dying to meet you." he greedily smiled, giving Cordelia one of the coldest glares she'd ever received.

Having noticed Bahran's glare, Cecil, angrier than he'd expected to be, started to reply with clenched teeth. "No, I haven't. I've been fairly busy with…"

That was as far as he got before a gray clothed and yellow haired girl ran past them at full speed, knocking Bahran flat on the ground and groaning as the blur ran off, with a small call of "Sorry!" echoing from the girl as she ran. Cecil swore to himself that that was Lissa in commoner clothing, he also swore for a quick second that Lissa's fist had, in fact, slammed so hard into Bahran's face that he spun around twice before hitting the ground on his ass.

What he did know, however, was that Bahran's jaw was completely broken, and he had to keep himself from dying of laughter in front of him.

"_Serves him right. I'll need to thank Lissa later." _Cecil chuckled to himself as Bahran started to yell with a very garbled voice at the retreating figure, before happily pulling Cordelia away with him while the now injured noble wasn't paying attention.

"Sorry about that, Cordelia. I hate dealing with him." Cecil said as the two of them quickly made their way out of the area.

"I can see why, he was a...let's just say I don't like him and leave it at that." Cordelia smiled, gaining a hearty laugh from Cecil as they rounded the corner to their intended destination. "I wonder who that was though."

"Oh, I'm sure it was no one important."

* * *

"Score one of Lissa!" Lissa grinned as she rounded the corner she left Celene at, finding her still waiting there for her to come back.

"I think you broke his jaw Lissa." Celene commented with worry.

"Eh, I'm sure he'll be fine. Come on, we're going to lose them if we wait any longer." Lissa said as she ran off.

"H..hey, wait up!" Celene stammered as she ran after her. She once again didn't notice Kellam standing next to them, with a look of sympathy towards the now injured noble.

"Note, don't get on Lissa's bad side." Kellam grimace.

* * *

Sumia swore that Frederick had a heart attack when they watched Lissa hit that noble square in the jaw. He'd turned so pale he'd be easily mistaken for a ghost.

"I...I...oh dear, that's one of…" he stammered out as Sumia dragged him along.

"One of the upper nobles I'd guess, probably had it coming too if we're being honest Frederick." Sumia sighed as she continued to drag Frederick past the three pegasus knights, who looked just as appalled at what happened as Frederick did.

* * *

"Here we are!" Cecil exclaimed happily several minutes later when they rounded the final corner, coming face to face with Lys Bleu.

It was, to Cordelia's shock, just a simple little tea house. Nothing fancy, not a high end establishment that was overly pricey, no multi story marble palace like some of the shops in the Upper District. No, it was just a small, nicely decorated, wooden house with a small terrace overlooking one of the smaller public parks in the area.

"I never even knew this was here." Cordelia smiled at the simplicity of it all.

"I didn't either, Lissa recommended it to me though. Apparently it's Emm's favorite place to go to relax, apparently no one bothers her while she's here." Cecil smiled as he led Cordelia into the main entrance, finding themselves in a very warm and homey interior. They were quickly greeted by an elderly woman who smiled just as warm as the interior felt.

"Well hello there dearies, how are you today?" she asked as she walked over to them.

"So far, perfectly Miss." Cecil smiled right back. "Princess Lissa recommended us to come here."

"Oh! Little Lissa said to come here? I'll have to thank that little sweetheart when I see her next." the elderly woman smiled. "Hmm...light red hair...ah, you must be this Cecil that Lissa and Lady Emmeryn have told me about, the one that's around Prince Chrom so much. I've heard a lot about you."

"All good things and not any of the trouble Chrom and I tend to get into I hope. This is Cordelia, a close friend of mine." Cecil nodded, Cordelia giving the elderly woman a smile and short curtsy.

The elderly woman gained a small glint to her eye, a delightful smile overcoming her. "Ah, close friend you say. Well, I'll make sure this date is one to remember dearie." she smiled brightly as she saw both of their faces going slightly red at the implication. "My name is Elma, just so you know. Go ahead and find whatever table you like outside, the flowers are especially beautiful this time of year. I'll be right out with the best tea I can muster." Elma laughed to herself as she quickly headed into the backroom to get started.

Cecil just sighed with a smile, "Why does everyone keep saying it's a date?"

"I suppose it would look that way to most people." Cordelia smiled slightly to herself before she started to drag Cecil towards a door in the far corner that led to the terrace. "Come on, I want to see what it looks like from outside."

"Alright alright, no need to drag me." Cecil laughed as he followed, not noticing Lissa and Celene slip inside and sit down at one of the tables right next to the door.

* * *

"Oh wow! This place looks so peaceful." Sumia commented as she and Frederick reathced the cafe.

"It is a cozy place, in the few times I've been able to visit at least." Frederick nodded. "If you were to bring it up, I'm sure my liege would bring you here, Sumia."

"Oh...uh...maybe I should bring it up to him then." Sumia nodded with a blush. "So...I guess we go in then, I think I see those two sitting out on the terrace so they shouldn't see us."

"Very well. I suppose I wouldn't mind some tea, actually." Frederick nodded, to which they made their way inside, only to hear a gasp as they entered.

"Hey!" Lissa hissed out. "What are you two doing here?"

"What do you think, Lissa?" Celene deadpanned. "It's not like her best friend is currently on a date here...oh wait."

"Hey, Cecil is supposed to be the snarky one." Lissa groaned. "Fine, come sit down over here." she said as she moved her chair around the table so they could squeeze in with an extra two chairs. Sumia and Frederick sat down at the table, with Frederick giving a hard glare to Lissa.

"We will be bringing up the fact that you punched a noble of the court when we next see the Exalt."

"Yeah, yeah." Lissa sighed with a shrug. "The guy had it coming anyways. Now sit down before they hear us. It's been going…" she stopped as they heard mirthful laughing coming from Cordelia outside. "Pretty well, actually. I thought we might have to input more than we have."

"Looks like my brother has this one handled pretty well." Celene smiled as Elma walked out of the backroom and noticed them. Lissa quickly waved her over with a smile.

"Sorry for the sudden intrusion, Elma." Lissa smiled. "We just couldn't pass up the opportunity to keep an eye on those two."

"No worries little one, I can't blame you in the slightest. I see a real connection between those two, I'm sure it'll lead to something soon." Elma smiled. "Reminds me of my husband and myself. Now, let me go and give those two their tea, then I'll grab some for all of you."

"Thanks, Elma. You're the best!" Lissa smiled as Elma left to go outside. "Think we have to worry about those two anymore?"

As Elma came back inside with a knowing smirk, Sumia took the chance to look through the door outside towards the table Cecil and Cordelia had sat at. Seeing her best friend with the most radiant smile she'd seen her have in years, she leaned back towards the table with a smile.

"No, I think they'll be just fine." Sumia smiled.

"Good, means I don't have to stop from doing something insane." Kellam smiled as he just suddenly appeared next to their table, causing the girls to yelp in surprise.

* * *

"What was that?" Cordelia questioned as both she and Cecil heard the surprised yells from inside.

"If I had to guess...I think we have a couple of stalkers." Cecil smiled as he could barely see Sumia sitting somewhere behind the door. Apparently it was easier to see her than she thought.

"Sumia?" Cordelia asked off the top of her head.

"Yep, you know how she is."

"Yes, yes I do." Cordelia smiled with a shake of her head.

* * *

"Man, Cordelia looks really happy." Lily smiled from behind a bush that was near the cafe.

"Yep, I think Cecil will take good care of her. She needed to get over that silly crush on the Prince anyways." May giggled.

"I don't think he's ever noticed it either." Laura laughed as the three of them started to walk away.

* * *

"Well...here we are. The Longfort." Severa coughed out in the current frigid weather.

"Yes...our biggest obstacle by far." Lucina nodded as they marveled at the currently intact Longford. Last they had seen it, it had been smashed to nothing but rubble by Grima's forces. To see it in its prime was a sight to behold for the time travelers. "I'm amazed we got here so quickly."

"Yeah, no kidding. If it weren't for that freak encounter with Uncle Donnel and his mom, it would've taken us another week to get here." Severa sighed.

"Well...don't look a gift horse in the mouth, as Uncle Donnel would say." Lucina said as they started their approach to the gates. They almost immediately heard shouts from the upper walls, dozens of figures leaning over and aiming bows and javelins at them.

"You just had to say something, Lucy." Severa huffed as she pulled Goldbrand from it's sheath.

"Looks like we'll have to fight our way in then." Lucina sighed.

"Oh joy." Severa replied with as much sarcasm as she could muster. "I guess I'll have to go all out then." she smiled as she summoned a fireball into her right hand and flung it at the gates as the two of them charged forwards.

* * *

**Oof, that took a while to finish. Sorry for the wait, having a job and really bad Wifi where I'm at puts a bit of strain when trying to write. Anyway's, next chapter we're heading to Ferox. See you all then!**


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